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ANCIENT TIMES 




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Men and Cities of Italy 

THE ROMAN EMPIRE 

THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS 

MAKERS OF MODERN ITALY 



IN THREE PARTS 




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THE ROMAN EMPIRE 

BY 

JAMES RICHARD JOY, M.A. 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two CoPita Received 

SEP. 9 1901 

Copyright entrv 
CLASS <^XXc. Na 

/ Oo^f 

COPY 3. 



Copyright, igoi. by 
CHAUTAUQUA ASSEMBLY 



The Lakeside Press, Chicago. III., U. S. A. 
R R. Donnelley & Sons Company 



OLD ROME 



CHAPTER I 

THE ITALIAN PENINSULA 

Italy is the central peninsula of the three which 
Southern Europe thrusts down into the Mediterranean 
Sea. The Alps wall it off from the continent, the 
piers of their mighty arch resting on the gulfs of 
Genoa and Venice. On the east is the Adriatic, which 
the Romans called Mare Superum (the Upper Sea), so 
distinguishing it from Mare Inferum, the Lower or 
Tuscan Sea, which washed their western shores. The 
Ionian Sea, on the south, rolls between the "sole of 
the boot" and Greece, completing the natural bound- 
aries. The extreme length of the peninsula is seven 
hundred miles. The northern expansion is three hun- 
dred miles broad, and the southern (from "heel" to 
"toe") is two hundred. The average width of the 
peninsula is not far from one hundred miles. The 
area of Italy is about one hundred thousand miles, or 
twice that of the state of New York. 

Two mountain ranges, the Alps and the Apennines, 
are the most conspicuous features of the Italian topog- 
raphy. The former, rising to fifteen thousand feet in 
height, present a difficult but not impenetrable barrier 

5 



6 The Roman Empire 

to foreign invasion. Where the Alps descend to the 
Gulf of Genoa the Apennines originate. This long 
and somewhat loosely linked chain at first trails east- 
ward toward the Adriatic, then holds the middle of the 
peninsula for several hundred miles, and finally dis- 
solves in a network of low ranges. Isolated volcanic 
peaks, Vultur, the Alban Hills, and Vesuvius, are also 
to be noted. 

Of Italian rivers the Padus or Po is easily chief. It 
crosses the great plain of Northern Italy and enters 
the Adriatic after receiving many affluents. The 
Adriatic also receives the Rubicon, Metaurus, Frento, 
and Aufidus, while the Macra, Arnus, Tiber, Liris, 
and Volturnus, all small streams, fall into the Tuscan 
Sea. 

Northern or Continental Italy which lay north of 
the Rubicon, differed radically from Italy proper. Its 
three regions were Liguria on the west, Venetia on the 
east, and between them Gallia Cisalpina or Hither 
Gaul. Italy proper was made up of two main divi- 
sions. Central and Lower Italy. Central Italy extended 
from the rivers Macra and Rubicon southward to the 
Silarus and Frento. Its subdivisions were Etruria, 
Latium, and Campania on the east coast, backed by 
Umbria, Samnium, and Picenum. The land of the 
Sabines is sometimes reckoned as a seventh district. 

Etruria lay in the well watered plain which was left 
by the Apennines bowing toward the east. Just south 
of it and almost midway of the peninsula a strip of hill 
and plain between the Tiber and Liris was Latium, 
the land of the Latins. Roma (Rome) was one of 
their towns. About the beautiful bay of Naples was 



The Italian Peninsula 7 

Campania, a region of sunny vineyards and luxurious 
cities. The central highlands and remote Adriatic 
shores furnished homes for the rude and hardy Umbri- 
ans, Samnites, and Sabines. 

Lower Italy embraced all of the peninsula south of 
the Silarus and Frento. Its four districts were Lu- 
cania, Apulia, Calabria, and Bruttium. Sicily (Tri- 
nacria), Sardinia, and Corsica, with the islets of Elba, 
Malta, Capri, Liparae, and yEgusae, are properly 
reckoned with Italy. The three large islands were 
long the granary of Rome, and the wealth and stra- 
tegic value of Sicily made it the battle-ground of three 
empires. 

The northern boundary of Italy is on the parallel 
of Quebec, and the southern is in the latitude of Rich- 
mond. Yet the massive mountain walls and the never 
distant seas greatly modify the climate. Central 
Italy — the Italy of Latium and Rome — is in the lati- 
tude of Boston, but both winters and summers are 
mild. Little snow falls except in the highlands, and 
the rivers seldom freeze. From Campania southward 
the hillsides bask in almost perpetual summer. The 
vine and olive come to perfection here, and in the 
cooler portions, wheat, flax, and hemp are cultivated. 
Orchard and forest fruits are abundant and various. 
The chestnut was and is a staple product, and oranges, 
lemons, figs, almonds, and even dates were plentiful. 
The uplands were peculiarly adapted to the profitable 
raising of sheep, goats, and horned cattle, and agri- 
culture and grazing have always been the leading 
occupations of the Italians. 

Traces have been found in several parts of Italy, 



8 The Roman Empire 

testifying to the presence in prehistoric times of a race 
which have been called lapygians. They have been 
lost under the successive waves of migration which 
swept over the peninsula. We know little more of 
them than that they were an early offshoot of that 
Aryan stock to which most of the population of Europe 
may be traced. The Italians proper are believed to 
have sprung from the same mother race and to have 
made their way westward from the Aryan homestead 
in company with the Hellenes, who peopled the Greek 
lands. Advancing overland by age-long stages, they 
at length doubled the head of the Adriatic and entered 
the valley of the Po, the gentle lapygian retiring 
before the stern and hardy immigrant. 

Even among the Italians, well-defined differences 
were noticed, the Umbrians, Samnites, and other 
tribes of the central and eastern highlands, being dis- 
tinguished from the Latins by marked variations of 
language and beliefs. Besides the vanishing lapygi- 
ans and the conquering Italians there was a third great 
people in Italy, the Etruscans, whose home between 
the Tiber and Arnus is still called Tuscany. Here 
they had a strong league of cities, and for a time held 
in check the rising power of Rome. The Etruscans 
were skilled artificers in metal, and the ruins of their 
tombs and walls bear evidence to their engineering and 
architectural progress. The study of their civilization 
is one of the most fascinating departments of archae- 
ology. 

Two other nationalities appeared in Italy just as 
Europe was emerging into the light of history. The 
Celts or Gauls, an offshoot of the great race which at 



The Italian Peninsula 9 

one time occupied nearly the whole of western Europe, 
established themselves in the Po valley — thencefor- 
ward Cisalpine Gaul. From the tenth to the seventh 
century before Christ the overflowing population of 
Greece came by sea to the harbors of the south and 
west, planting the Greek language and civilization so 
firmly that the name Magna Graecia (Great Greece) 
long clung to that region of entrancing beauty. 

SUMMARY AND QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

The Italian Peninsula: The Adriatic (Mare Superum), the 
Tuscan Sea (Mare Inferum), the Ionian Sea (between Greece 
and the "sole of the boot"). Length of peninsula, 700 miles; 
300 wide at the north; average, 100; from heel to toe, 200. 
Area, 100,000 square miles — twice that of the state of New 
York. Rivers: Into the Adriatic flow the Po, Rubicon, Me- 
taurus, Frento, and Aufidus; into the Tuscan Sea, the Macra, 
Arnus, Tiber, Liris, and Volturnus. 

Continental Italy: Liguria, Gallia Cisalpina, Venetia. 
Central Italy: Etruria, Latium, and Campania, Umbria, Sam- 
nium, and Picenum. Lower Italy: Lucania, Calabria, Brut- 
tium. The islands: Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, Elba, Malta, 
Capri, Liparae, and ^gusae. Latitude: Quebec to Richmond. 

The Races: lapygians, Etruscans, Italians, Gauls, and 
Greeks. 

I. Describe the geographical characteristics of Italy. 
2. What was included in (a) Continental Italy, (b) Central 
Italy, (c) Lower Italy? 3. What islands are reckoned with 
Italy? 4. Compare the climate of Italy with that of this coun- 
try. 5. What early races occupied Italy? 6. Who were the 
Italians? 7. Why are the remains of Etruscan civilization of 
peculiar interest? 8. Who. were the Gauls and where did they 
settle in Italy? 9. What region was called Magna Graecia, and 
why? 



lo The Roman Empire 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

History of Rome. Theodor jMommsen. 4 vols. 

The Story of Ro?ne. Arthur Gilman. 

Walks in Rojue. A. J. C. Hare. 

Ave Roma Immortalis. F. M. Crawford. 



CHAPTER II 

THE BEGINNINGS OF ROME 

On a cluster of low hills in Latium, about midway 
of the length of the peninsula of Italy, has stood for 
nearly twenty-seven centuries a city called Roma by 
its inhabitants and known to us as Rome. Twenty- 
two miles from the Tuscan Sea the Tiber turns sharply 
to the east "and then doubles back toward the west, 
describing a rude S. In the upper loop on the broad 
plain, once called the Campus Martius, is built the 
modern capital of Italy. Just south of the lower bend 
of the river are the seven hills of the ancient capital 
of the world. By the riverside are the Capitoline, 
Palatine, and Aventine, and farther away, like the 
fingers of a mighty hand, are the Cslian, Esquiline, 
Viminal, and Quirinal. At the base of the Capitoline, 
in the hollow of that thumbless hand, was the public 
square of the city, the Roman Forum, now choked 
with the ruins of temples, law courts, and triumphal 
arches. In the days of Roman greatness the pulse- 
beat of the empire was in the Forum, to whose *'golden 
milestone" all roads led. On the right bank of the 
Tiber are two other hills, the Janiculan, once a Roman 
fortress, and the Vatican, the residence or "prison" 
of the pope. 

One does not see most clearly at early dawn, and 
the morning twilight of Roman history has perplexed 

zi 



12 The Roman Empire 

historians of the keenest vision. The Roman story 
of the founding of their city and its development under 
the rule of kings, was briefly this : 

The Trojan prince ^-Eneas, escaping from the sack 
of Troy, founded a colony in Latium. Three centuries 
later a virgin princess of this line had by Mars twin 
sons, Romulus and Remus, whom a she-wolf suckled 
with her brood. The twins, grown to manhood, 
gathered followers and settled on the Palatine, calling 
their new town Roma, from Romulus, its leader and 
lawgiver, who was translated by the gods after divid- 
ing the people into "patricians" and "plebeians,'* 
selecting an advisory council or "senate" and organ- 
izinor a military force or leo:ion. The senate chose for 
the successor of the deified founder a Sabine named 
Numa Pompilius, who, guided by supernatural wisdom, 
taught the people morals and religion. Under Tullus 
Hostilius, the third king, the infant city began its con- 
quering career among the neighboring communities. 
Ancus Martins, like his kinsman Numa, was a man of 
piety and valor, who improved his people and ex- 
tended their borders. After his death an Etruscan, 
to whom he had shown favor, was elected king. This 
Lucius Tarquinius, called Priscus, "The Ancient," 
fought successfully against the aggressive Etruscans, 
built the massive sewer ("Cloaca Maxima") which 
still drains the low ground between the hills, and set 
apart the Forum for a market and meeting place. The 
sons of Ancus had him assassinated, but the low-born 
Servius TuUius forestalled their ambitions and made 
himself king. In his reign the seven hills were first 
enclosed by a ring wall. A military organization of 



The Beginnings of Rome 13 

the people by "classes" and "centuries" was insti- 
tuted, from which the popular assembly "comitia cen- 
turiata" took its rise. Lucius Tarquinius, called 
Superbus, "The Haughty," was the seventh and last 
king. He overthrew his predecessor and, disregard- 
ing the Servian reforms, exercised absolute sway like 
the "tyrants" who were just then flourishing in the 
cities of Greece. His tyranny and the villainy of his 
sons provoked the wrath of the people who, led by 
Brutus and other patriots, cast him out. The Etrus- 
cans befriended the Tarquins, but the Romans, led by 
their two chosen magistrates, called "consuls," and 
later by a single "dictator," finally, by the favor of the 
gods Castor and Pollux, prevailed, and cast out the 
kings forever. For five hundred years Rome was ruled 
by consuls, and the very name of king was forbidden. 
Even when absolute power again came to the single 
hand of a Caesar, the monarch shrank from assuming 
the trappings of royalty. 

In the writings of the Roman poets and historians 
the bare narrative of the regal period which we have 
given was enriched with those wonderful hero tales 
which figure in the childhood of nearly every race. 
The gods dealt directly with men; the Horatii and 
Curiatii fought their battles; Scaevola thrust his hand 
into the flame to prove his constancy ; the stern Brutus 
condemned his false sons, and Horatius kept the bridge 
in the brave days of old. Indeed, the modern student 
is puzzled to distinguish fact from fable in all this 
tangle of tradition, myth, and miracle. 

The modern theory of the beginnings of Rome may 
be sketched thus: 



14 The Roman Empire 

The ancient people of Latium were farmers and 
shepherds. The descendants of a common ancestor 
lived together as a clan, and several neighboring or 
kindred clans would find mutual advantage in com- 
bining. Such a cantonal community would center 
about a village fortress naturally suited for defense. 
To such a hill-citadel the settlers would retire when 
danger threatened. Some thirty of these Latin can- 
tons existed in early times and formed a league of 
which the mountain town Alba Longa was the head. 
Here the annual religious festival of the race was held. 

Rome was one of these hill-citadels. It is probable 
that the consolidation of several such strongholds on 
the Palatine, Capitoline, and Quirinal hills gave the 
city-state its first impulse toward greatness. Three 
neighbor-hills were better than one; a river town had 
more resources than an inland village; and a frontier 
post on the march of Etruria must needs look well to 
its defenses. The rude Romans gained by their inter- 
course with the Etruscans. Thus the fortified frontier 
town on the hills by the Tiber gained a step or two in 
the race for the primacy of Latium. 

The dwellers in the little Rome were not politically 
equal. Certain families, perhaps descended from the 
original settlers, were called "patricians" ("children 
of the fathers") and monopolized political, military, 
and priestly power. They were the state, the populus 
Romanus or Roman people, and their three tribes were 
organized by households, clans i^gentes)^ and wards 
[curicR). The patricians were jealous of their privi- 
leges and excluded newcomers from political rights. 
These later settlers were from the earliest times called 



The Beginnings of Rome 15 

"plebeians" (the masses) and as they increased in 
numbers and wealth, friction arose between them and 
the ruling order. Beneath patrician and plebeian in 
the social scale ranked the slave, the mere chattel of 
his owner. 

The government of the village commonwealth was 
doubtless monarchical. Beside the king ranked a 
senate composed of the elders of the patrician order. 
On rare occasions the entire body of the patricians 
met in the "comitia curiata" to determine great ques- 
tions of state. The senate, to which in republican 
times even plebeians became eligible, developed into 
the world's greatest legislative assembly. 

Toward the close of the regal period a liberal and 
perhaps low-born king sought to broaden the political 
foundation of the state by admitting plebeians to mili- 
tary service and in some degree to political rights. 
The army was reorganized by "centuries" (hundreds) 
and enrolment was no longer limited to tests of birth, 
a property qualification being introduced. Out of 
the meeting of the army by centuries to decide pro- 
posals of peace or war, grew in time the legislative 
functions of the comitia centuriata in which the com- 
moners effectively asserted themselves against the 
aristocrats. 

The republican revolution sprang not from the 
oppression of the plebeians, but from the ambition of 
the kings. The student of the legends must have 
detected the strain of violence and despotism running 
through the traditional accounts of the later kings. 
The monarch is no longer the revered judge and priest 
of his people but has become a military leader. The 



1 6 The Roman Empire 

throne no longer descends peacefully to the senator 
whom his colleagues elect and the curiae and the gods 
approve. The monarch intrigues to control the suc- 
cession. The Tarquins are unmistakably foreigners, 
through whose disguise we think we see signs of a 
period of Etruscan domination. Their concentrated 
power and military genius made Rome the leading city 
of the Latins, but their tyrannous neglect of the senate 
and comitia hastened the revolt. Lucretia's dishonor 
and Brutus's patriotism may be fictions, but we cannot 
doubt the fact that the military despotism made itself 
so odious that the citizens at length rose against the 
tyrants and drove them out. The power of Etruria 
failed to reinstate the exiled Tarquins, and an aristo- 
cratic Roman republic was set up in place of the hated 
throne. The principle of elective office was reasserted 
and two consuls were chosen every year in place of 
one king. 

The Roman date for the founding of the city by 
Romulus was 753 B. C. The reigns of the seven 
kings lasted 244 years, and the republic began in 509 
B. C. We do not pretend in our present state of 
knowledge to fix these dates with accuracy. 



SUMMARY AND QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

Rome: The Tiber, the Seven Hills— Capitoline, Palatine, 
Aventine, C^elian, Esquiline, Viminal, and Quirinal; on the 
right bank of the Tiber, the Janiculan and Vatican. Legends 
of the city: ^neas and Latium, Mars, Romulus and Remus, 
patricians and plebeians. Numa Pompilius, morals and re- 
ligion. TuUus Hostilius, the city begins conquests. Ancus 
Martius, a growing kingdom. Lucius Tarquinius, the Etruscan; 



The Beginnings of Rome 17 

the Cloaca Maxima. Servius Tullius, a wall about the Seven 
Hills; military organization "comitia centuria." Lucius Tar- 
quinius "Superbus," overthrows Servian reforms and rules 
like a Greek "tyrant"; expelled by the people under Brutus 
and others. Approximate dates: Founding of the city, 753 
B. C; fall of the kings and beginning of the republic, 509 B. C. 
I. Describe the location of the city of Rome. 2. What was 
the legend of the founding of the city? 3. What events are 
associated with each of the seven kings? 4. What are some 
of the famous hero tales belonging to this period? 5. Describe 
the probable origin of the early city-state of Rome. 6. What 
was the social organization of the community? 7. Describe the 
general system of government under the kings. 8. What 
caused the revolution which brought in the Republic? 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Rome of To-day and Yesterday. John Dennie. 

The City of Ro77ie. Thomas A. Dyer. 

The City-State of the Greeks and Romans. W. W. Fowler. 

Early Ro7?ie. W. Ihne. (Epoch Series.) 

Lays of Ancient RojJie. Macaulay. 



CHAPTER III 

THE MAKING OF THE COMMONWEALTH 

For two centuries and a half after the expulsion of 
the kings (if we may accept the date 509 B. C, as 
commonly given) Rome was engaged in working out 
a double task. Step by step her armies were extending 
her power throughout the peninsula and weaving the 
network of military and administrative threads which 
were to bind all Italy to herself. This was but half, 
the smaller half it may be, of her work. Within the 
city the irrepressible conflict between the two orders 
was perpetually on. The patrician clung to his privi- 
leges; the plebeian, ever gaining in numbers, and 
already contributing his share to the success of Roman 
arms, was clamoring for political and social rights. 

In doing away with the monarchy Rome did not 
substitute a democratic republic. The patrician sen- 
ate looked well to the interests of its own order in 
distributing to newly constituted officers the functions 
which had been stripped from the deposed king. The 
chief magistracy was bestowed upon two patrician 
consuls, chosen annually. A "ritual king" {rex sac- 
rorti?}i) was appointed to perform the religious services 
of the crown. He must be a patrician. Two patri- 
cian quaestors (or inspectors) succeeded to the royal 
prerogatives as judge and chancellor. In time of 
special peril when the safety of the state might be 

18 



The Making of the Commonwealth 19 

hazarded by the division of responsibility the senate 
might commission a "dictator" or temporary king. 
For a century and a half none but patricians were 
entrusted with dictatorial power. 

The patricians were thus largely gainers by the ex- 
pulsion of the kings. The lot of the commoners was 
in the way of becoming intolerable. Many of them had 
been plunged into debt during the war, and the public 
lands acquired by conquest were monopolized by the 
great patrician families, who tilled these estates by 
slave labor and drove the small plebeian farmers to 
the wall. To bring the ruling order to terms the plebs 
three times resorted to the extreme measure of seces- 
sion. 

The first secession took place in 494 B. C. An 
army, largely composed of plebeians, returning from 
a successful campaign, resolved to found a new and 
free city. To win them back the government enacted 
a law guaranteeing to them the right to have a board 
of magistrates of their own, the tribuni plebis^ or "tri- 
bunes of the people." These officials elected by the 
commons from their own number had the right of veto 
("I forbid") upon the acts of all magistrates and 
assemblies. They were immune from legal prosecu- 
tion while in office, and their dwellings were a legal 
refuge for persons accused of crime. 

It is evident that these favors greatly ameliorated 
the condition of the oppressed classes. To the ground 
where they made their stand for liberty they gave the 
name of Mons Sacer (Holy Hill) and the precious 
charter of their first rights was called ever afterward 
the Sacred Law. 



20 The Roman Empire 

Half a century later the plebs again seceded. The 
waste and ruin of frequent campaigns had greatly dis- 
tressed them. They felt insecure in such rights as 
they had wrested from the patricians and began to 
demand that the laws which confirmed their liberties 
be written out and posted where all might read them. 
A board of ten (Decemviri) was appointed to do this, 
and their codification, "The Laws of the Twelve 
Tables," was engraved on brass and set up in the 
Forum. But the Decemvirs themselves, led by the 
foul Appius Claudius, refused to lay down their dicta- 
torial authority when their task was completed. The 
exasperated plebeians again seceded to the Holy Hill 
and would have built a rival city there had not the 
patricians yielded. The tribunes were restored with 
enlarged power, and other concessions were granted. 

Taught by these events that they were indispen- 
sable to the city's welfare, the plebeians, on their 
return, redoubled their agitation. They soon secured 
the right of intermarriage with the patricians, and laid 
siege to the consulship itself. Their opponents held 
them off by compromises for a half century, but the 
victory came in 367 B. C. It was enacted that one of 
the consuls must be a plebeian. The ruling class 
made futile efforts to save itself by transferring certain 
important duties of the consul to newly created offi- 
cials, who could not be of ignoble blood, but these 
citadels of exclusiveness could not long hold out. 
Dictatorships, censorships, quaestorships, and praetor- 
ships were rapidly thrown open to both classes, and 
after a third secession of the plebs (287 B. C), the 
last point was yielded and their class assembly, the 



The Making of the Commonwealth 21 

comitia tributa, was recognized as possessing equal 
legislative authority with the older joint assembly, the 
comitia centuriata. 

This series of laws broke down the wall which had 
divided the Roman freemen into two hostile camps. 
The distinction still survived in pride of race, but 
politically the orders were now on the same footing. 
All the honors of state and religion were open to ple- 
beians ; the resolutions of their assembly were the laws 
of the land; their consuls and dictators might lead the 
armies; their senators sat and voted with the repre- 
sentatives of the immemorial houses. 

The enormous changes which have been summar- 
ized in this brief chapter were two centuries in the 
consummation. Taken together they involve a com- 
plete revolution in the constitution of the Roman state. 
It is the spectacle of a subject class extorting not only 
liberty, but privilege and power from its proud superi- 
ors. Similar results have been achieved in other 
countries and in recent times, but the Romans almost 
alone have possessed the political genius which enabled 
them to accomplish this revolution withoiit passing 
through a period of anarchy. The Roman struggle 
for the equalization of the orders was fiercely contested, 
but it was fought in legal forms, not with fire and 
sword, and the years consumed in the process were so 
many years of education in those qualities of self-con- 
trol, moderation, reverence for law, which enabled the 
new Rome to master the world. 



22 The Roman Empire 



SUMMARY AND QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

The Republic: 509 B. C. The patrician senate, patrician 
"ritual king," and quaestors. In time of peril, a patrician 
"dictator." Struggles of the plebeians. Conquered lands 
monopolized by patricians. Debts and failure among ple- 
beians. The first secession of the plebeians to Mons Sacer, 
494 B. C, secures a Board of Magistrates, "Tribunes of the 
People," with right of veto upon acts of magistrates and as- 
semblies. A half century later, their rights being insecure, 
confirmed by the Decemviri in " The Laws of the Twelve 
Tables." Decemvirs refuse to lay down authority, and ple- 
beians secede in 448 B. C. Tribunes given larger power and 
other points yielded. Law requiring one consul to be a ple- 
beian, 367 B. C; other offices follow. Third secession in 287 
B. C. secures equal authority of comitia tributa with the older 
comitia centuriata. Two centuries of struggle educate the 
Romans in self-control, moderation, and reverence for law. 

I. How did the patricians of the new republic keep the 
power in their own hands? 2. In what way did the plebeians 
suffer as a result? 3. What caused the first secession, and 
what privileges were secured by it? 4. Describe the second 
secession and the result. 5. What important offices at length 
were thrown open to the plebeians? 6. What was secured by 
the third secession? 7. What educational effect had tliese two 
centuries c^ struggle? 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

History of the Ruman Reptiblic. Mommsen. i vol. 
The Rums a?id Excavations of Ancient Rome, Lanciani. 
Roman a7id Medieval Art. W. H. Goodyear. 
Early Ronie. W. Ihne. (Epoch Series.) 



CHAPTER IV 

THE SOVEREIGN CITY 

While the plebeians were fighting their way inch by 
inch to equality with the patricians in the conduct of 
the government, the city was taking its place at the 
head of Latium, Italy, the World. Indeed the success 
of the commons in their contention was largely due to 
their sagacity in taking advantage of these conditions. 
They knew well that the governing classes would sur- 
render something of their privileges rather than that 
their great undertakings should be imperiled. The 
several secessions of the plebs were as nicely calcu- 
lated in point of time as the strike of a trades union 
when important contracts hang in the balance. 

In the first century after the expulsion of the kings 
the rivalry with the Etruscan cities, and the resistance 
of the Latin communities to the Roman effort to domi- 
nate them, gave the little armed bands of Rome 
enough to do. The name of Coriolanus looms up 
through the dusk of that early day, the patrician con- 
sul who, for assailing the liberties of the plebeians, 
was driven into exile and led a hostile army to the 
gates of Rome, sparing the city only at the tearful 
entreaties of his wife and mother. The hero Camil- 
lus, the second founder of Rome, belongs to the same 
region where legend and history are commingled. 
Rome was at death grapple with Veil, her Etruscan 

23 



24 The Roman Empire 

rival across the Tiber. P'or the first time in her his- 
tory Rome kept her citizen soldiery in the field all 
winter, and paid the men for their service, the foun- 
dation as it proved of a military system which was to 
last a thousand years. Camillus, the Roman leader, 
performed prodigies of valor, and A'eii fell. Almost 
in the hour of her triumph Rome was overmastered. 
A horde of Gaulish barbarians pouring down through 
Etruria, overwhelmed the Roman forces. The citi- 
zens fled. The Gauls burned the city, murdering the 
stolid senators in their places, but the temples on the 
Capitoline were saved by the cackling of Juno's geese, 
startling the drowsy garrison to arms. Bribes or the 
exploits of Camillus, if the legend is well based, at 
length took the besiegers away and left the citizens 
free to rebuild the blackened city. 

After establishing her headship of the Latins, Rome 
had three races between her and the conquest of the 
peninsula: The Etruscans, already weakened by the 
loss of Veii and the raids of the Gauls; the Italian 
mountaineers of the central region (Samnites, Sabines, 
etc.); and the Greeks of Southern Italy. 

The Samnites, hardy fighters, dwelling in a difficult 
country — the Boers of their age — cost the Romans 
nearly a half century of fighting, interrupted by several 
truces. In the second stage of the conflict the Roman 
arms received a check at "the Caudine Forks," both 
the consular armies being entrapped and forced to 
pass "under the yoke." The Gauls were afterward 
brought into the field against Rome, but Roman stead- 
fastness and Roman organization finally wore down 
all opposition. After 290 B. C, the Roman sway 



The Sovereign City 25 

was scarcely disputed from the Rubicon to Magna 
Graecia. 

The genius of Rome displayed itself not more in 
the field than in the measures which were taken by 
the city-state to secure her hold upon the overmastered 
peoples. Scarcely had she begun her campaigning 
against the Samnites when she had to face this prob- 
lem. The men of the Latin cities, standing shoulder 
to shoulder with the Roman citizen under the Roman 
standard, demanded a share in the fruits of victory. 
They watched the rise of the plebeians and demanded 
political rights for themselves. But the fundamental 
doctrine of the Roman republic restricted political 
rights to actual inhabitants of the city. The rebellion 
of the Latins (340-338 B. C.) w^as crushed, and the 
existing league of which Rome had been the head 
gave place to separate treaties between Rome and the 
several Latin towns. Soon afterward a modified citi- 
zenship was extended to them. They served in the 
armies and were taxed, but were excluded from voting 
in the city assemblies and from holding Roman office — 
their condition thus resembling that of the plebeians 
before the inception of the reforms. 

Colonies and roads bound the newly conquered 
domain to the ruling city. Lands near the conquered 
towns were granted to Romans, usually citizens who 
were encouraged to settle upon them. These colonists 
forfeited none of their rights as Romans by their non- 
residence. Such colonies w^ere not only military 
strongholds, but were centers of Roman influence of 
every sort, contributing directly and powerfully to the 
diffusion of the Latin language and Roman law and 



26 The Roman Empire 

customs, by which the races of the peninsula were 
brought into union and their differences worn away. 
To facilitate communication between these isolated 
outposts, and to furnish means for the rapid concen- 
tration of troops, the senate undertook the construc- 
tion of a system of military roads, which eventually 
bound not only Italy but the whole empire to the 
capital. These magnificent highways, perfectly 
graded, drained, and paved, some of which are in use 
to the present day, were extended. as rapidly as con- 
quests permitted. By the beginning of the third cen- 
tury before Christ the Appian Way (Via Appia) "the 
queen of roads," which was to connect Rome with the 
southeast was built, and the great northern highways, 
the Via Flaminia and the Via Valeria had penetrated 
the fastnesses of the Samnite mountains. 

The southward advance of the Roman colonists and 
roadmakers aroused the pleasure-loving cities of 
Magna Gr^cia from their luxurious ease. Tarentum 
challenged Rome's advance and brought over Pyrrhus, 
king of Epirus, from the Greek mainland with ele- 
phants and the Greek phalanx to oppose the Roman 
legions. The northerners were driven back by their 
strange foe, but their historians loved to dwell upon 
the stubborn resistance which they made and the 
losses they inflicted. "Another such victory and I 
am undone," said the Epirote king, when he surveyed 
the bloody field and counted the myriads of the fallen, 
all with wounds in front. And it was so, for at Bene- 
ventum (275 B. C.) he was utterly routed and igno- 
miniously abandoned the attempt. By the year 264 
B. C, the Greek cities of Italy and those Italians who 



The Sovereign City 27 

had broken their bonds to range themselves on the 
side of Pyrrhus had been subdued. Between the 
Rubicon and the three surrounding seas, all Italy had 
bowed the knee to Rome. 

The government of this Italy was exercised by the 
citizens of Rome. Their senate and assemblies made 
the laws, and their elected consuls and other magis- 
trates attended to the execution. Outside of Rome 
the Italian communities fell into three classes, the 
colonies whose people were transplanted Romans, the 
municipalities [jnunicipid) whose inhabitants bore the 
burdens of military service and taxation without 
the privileges of Roman citizenship, and the allies 
{socii) whose relations to Rome were fixed by treaties 
upon varying terms of dependence. 

A glance at the map of the Mediterranean is suffi- 
cient to suggest that the island of Sicily belongs politi- 
cally to Italy. It was in this island that Rome, now 
the mistress of Italy, found herself confronted by a 
power more ancient and perhaps more civilized than 
herself. This rival power was Carthage, and, once 
these rivals grappled for the mastery of the Mediter- 
ranean world, the destruction of one or the other was 
inevitable. To this conflict which, with interruptions, 
covered a century and a quarter, history has given the 
name of the Punic Wars. 

When Rome was no more than a huddle of shep- 
herd huts on the Palatine one of many adventurous 
expeditions from Phoenicia founded a trading post on 
the northern coast of Africa near the site of modern 
Tunis. Carthage became the head of a rich and popu- 
lous commercial empire with its fleets on all seas, and 



28 The Roman E 



m 



pire 



with trading posts in Sicily, Sardinia, Spain, and 
Africa. Her government was an oligarchy, the state 
being made up of a few rich and powerful magnates, 
of landless freemen, and myriads of slaves. The 
armies were manned by mercenaries and officered only 
by Carthaginians. 

Sicily, in the third century, had many Greek cities 
and a score of Carthaginian trading posts. Rome 
became entangled in the affairs of the island about 264 
B. C. With the assistance of the Greek king of Syra- 
cuse, she made havoc of the Carthaginian posts except 
along the coasts where the superiority of the Punic 
fleet baffled their efforts. This led the senate to con- 
struct the first Roman navy, and soon she had one 
hundred and twenty vessels afloat, crowded with fight- 
ing men, and furnished with grappling hooks and 
boarding bridges, equipments hitherto unknown. In 
260 B. C, at Mylae, the Romans won their first sea 
fight. Four years later a Roman expedition, under 
the consul Regulus, landed in Africa and threatened 
Carthage itself. But Hamilcar, the hostile general, 
swooped down on him from Sicily, cut his legions to 
pieces with cavalry and elephants, and captured the 
consul himself. The Romans solaced their pride by 
telling in after years how Regulus, having been des- 
patched under parole to Rome to negotiate terms of 
peace, exhorted the senate to fight on while he himself 
returned to taunt his captors and die in torments. 
His advice was taken, and Rome pressed her foe so 
hard that in 241 B. C. Carthage evacuated Sicily and 
agreed to pay the costs of the war. The peace was 
but a lull between storms. Rome spent it in settling 



The Sovereign City 29 

the government of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, her 
first provinces, in clearing the Adriatic of its pirate 
hordes, and in carrying her conquests beyond the 
Rubicon, where she chastised the turbulent Gauls and 
took measures for their absorption by planting her 
colonies, Cremona, Mutina, and Placentia, in the valley 
of the Po, and pushing the Flaminian Way beyond the 
Apennines. 

Hamilcar, surnamed Barca, "the Lightning," the 
conqueror of Regulus, foresaw the renewal of hostilities 
with Rome, and bent his energies to prepare for it, by 
building up a rich and resourceful Carthaginian prov- 
ince in the Iberian peninsula (Spain). His son, 
Hannibal, pledged from childhood to undying hatred 
of Rome, took up the work after his father's death, 
and conducted the affairs of the province with con- 
summate ability. Under him an army was drilled and 
hardened for a desperate campaign, and a great mili- 
tary treasure was accumulated. His men were not 
the usual medley of mercenaries who fought the 
battles of Carthage. They were veterans of many 
battles under his father and himself. They were well 
paid and well fed veterans, devoted to their leader and 
sharing his own lofty enthusiasm. Hannibal was him- 
self the central figure of this Second Punic War. He 
was one of the world's greatest soldiers, one whose 
talent far transcended that of a mere leader of troops. 
He was a statesman of foresight and energy, and until 
his death his very existence was felt and feared at 
Rome as a menace. 

Hannibal's aggression in Spain provoked a declar- 
ation of war by the senate in 218 B. C, when his plan 



30 The Roman Empire 

of campaign was fully matured. He perceived that 
Rome's strength consisted in her allies — that he must 
dissolve the union of Italy in order to succeed. There 
was certainly ground for hope. The Gauls were still 
sore from their chastising. There yet lived Samnites 
and Etruscans who had not forgotten the bliss of lib- 
erty, and the Roman yoke in the cities of Great Greece 
was but half a century old. Hannibal determined to 
enter Italy as a liberator, summoning the disaffected 
to his standards, and having shorn Rome of her allies, 
would fling himself upon her with his splendid battal- 
ions. Crossing the Alps by the pass of the Little St. 
Bernard, he descended into the valley of the Po, where 
the Gauls crowded eagerly to his camp. He defeated 
the consul, and sneaking past the forces which were 
sent to stop him, gained entrance to Etruria. Here 
at Lake Trasimenus he lured the Roman army into a 
trap from which few escaped. The city was in great 
danger. Quintus Fabius Maximus was appointed dic- 
tator, and every nerve was strained to put the capital 
in an attitude of defense. But Hannibal being with- 
out siege material did not press his advantage. Pur- 
suing his old design he turned eastward toward the 
Adriatic, gathering forage, and disciplining his Gauls. 
Fabius, the commander to whom the senate had 
entrusted the defense, had not studied in vain the 
defeats of his predecessors. His army, deficient in 
cavalry, could not cope with his enemy in the open 
field, but he might hope to frustrate his plans by 
avoiding an engagement. As yet none of the allies 
except the Gauls had deserted from what must have 
looked like a losing cause. The Roman political sys- 



The Sovereign City 3 i 

tern and the colonies, ''patches of Rome," throughout 
the peninsula held the subject countries to their 
fealty. Hannibal's hopes depended upon their un- 
faithfulness and, should they remain true to Rome, his 
isolated position might become hazardous. So Fabius 
continued to follow the invader at a safe distance in- 
stead of facing him. The eager Roman populace 
called him "Cunctator" (loiterer) and clamored 
against his masterly inactivity. The two consuls who 
superseded him (216 B. C), tired of his "Fabian" tac- 
tics, gave battle to the invader, losing seventy thou- 
sand men on the field of Cannae. The news brought 
the Samnites to Hannibal's side, but scarcely another 
treaty-bond gave way, while the Roman senate ex- 
hibited an energy at this crisis which betokened in- 
domitable courage and ultimate victory. Great armies 
were levied, new commanders were appointed, foreign 
alliances were negotiated. The young general Scipio, 
having crushed the Carthaginian power in Spain, was 
made consul. He conceived the project of dislodging 
Hannibal from Italy, wbere he yet lingered in the fast- 
nesses of the south, by "carrying the war into Africa." 
The strategy proved successful. Scipio crossed to 
Carthage, Hannibal was recalled in haste to save the 
capital, but met defeat at Zama (202 B. C). 

The price of peace was dear. The proud mistress 
of the seas had to destroy her fleet, relinquish her 
European provinces, and pay tribute to the conqueror. 
The young Scipio was greeted in Rome with unprece- 
dented honors, and was entitled Africanus, in com- 
memoration of his achievement. Those Italian com- 
munities which had proved false to Rome were 



32 The Roman Empire 

deprived of lands and political rights, and the Spanish 
dominion which Hamilcar had carved out was parceled 
into two Roman provinces. 

Hannibal devoted all his powers to the task of re- 
habilitating his state, but the hostility of Rome drove 
him into exile. He found refuge in the East in the 
court of Antiochus (194 B. C), where he enlisted that 
monarch in his projects of revenge. The long arm of 
Rome reached him even here, and he retired to 
Bithynia, but death was the only refuge from Roman 
vengeance, and in 183 B. C. the great Carthaginian 
took poison. 

Carthage, though shorn of her empire, continued 
to prosper in trade, and even began to raise her head 
against the encroachments of Rome. Marcus Por- 
cius Cato, the censor, urged the senate to remove this 
standing menace by destroying the city. His reiter- 
ated demand, "Carthage must be wiped out," 
{^'' Delenda est Carthago!''^ at length had its effect. In 
149 B. C, the Romans assailed the doomed city. 
In this Third Punic War, the citizens defended them- 
selves with the most heroic devotion, enduring the 
horrors of a protracted siege until in 146 B. C. Scipio 
^milianus stormed the city, and put them to the 
sword. The walls and buildings were leveled, and the 
curse of the gods was pronounced upon the blackened 
ruin of the once imperial city. Carthage was erased 
from the map of the world, and its territory was 
divided between Numidia and the Roman province, 
Africa. 

The crushing of Carthage at Zama left the western 
horizon clear. No power was left in that end of the 



The Sovereign City 33 

Mediterranean to resist the designs of Rome. In the 
East, however, were the many kingdoms which had 
been erected out of the conquests of Alexander the 
Great (336-323 B. C). Macedonia, the Greek city- 
federations, Egypt under the Ptolemies, Syria under 
the Seleucids, Pergamon and Bithynia in Asia Minor, 
abounded in populous and ancient cities, adorned with 
the art of Greece and enriched with the spoils of the 
far East. To Rome in the flush of conquest they 
must have seemed easy and tempting prey. 

Hannibal's attempts to harass Rome by a hostile 
league of Mediterranean powers only hastened their 
own destruction. Between 215 and 197 B. C., Rome 
had fought two wars with Philip V. of Macedon, and 
with the help of the Greek confederacies, had humbled 
that state. Greeks and Macedonians aided Rome in 
her resistance to the Syrian Antiochus (192-190 B. C). 
The last effort of Macedon to assert its independence 
was in 172 B. C, and after its fall four years later, 
there was left no civilized state on the Mediterranean 
shores of Europe, Asia, or Africa where the authority 
of the Roman senate was not recognized as para- 
mount. Kings still ruled in Asia Minor and in Egypt, 
but their days were already numbered. Macedonia 
became a province of Rome. Greece, its splendid 
capital, Corinth, laid in ruins, became the province 
Achaia. Rome had crushed and destroyed every 
rival, and by 140 B. C. was the acknowledged sover- 
eign of the world. 



34 The Roman Empire 

SUMMARY AND QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

Growth of the city: Coriolanus, the patrician consul, exiled 
from Rome, leads an army against it. Camillus, tlie Roman 
general, overthrows the Etruscan city of Veil. The Gauls bum 
Rome 390 B. C. Roman headship of the Latins. Struggles 
with the Samnites, the " Caudine Forks," Rome finally con- 
quers. Supreme from the Rubicon to Magna Graecia after 290 
B.C. 

Rome gives a modified citizenship to the conquered states, 
similar to that of early plebeians. Roman citizens granted 
conquered lands; the Roman roads; the Appian Way begun 
313 B. C. The Greek colonies, under Pyrrhus of Epirus, chal- 
lenge Rome's advance; routed at Beneventum ; Rome supreme 
south of the Rubicon in 264 B. C« Italy governed by the citi- 
zens of Rome. Roman colonies of Roman citizens; muncipal- 
ities without citizenship; allies (socii). 

The Punic Wars: Sicily with its Carthaginian trading 
posts. Rome and the Greek king of Syracuse destroy these 
posts except on the coast. Rome builds a navy and wins in 
the sea fight at Mylae, 260 B. C. Regulus at Carthage defeated 
by Hamilcar. Rome drives Carthage from Sicily. Roman 
colonies in Northern Italy. Hamilcar in Spain. Hannibal's 
campaign, 218 B. C; crosses the Alps. Lake Trasimenus a 
Roman death-trap, Fabius, the "Loiterer." Other consuls 
give battle, losing 70,000 at Cannae. Scipio carries the war 
into Africa. Defeats Hannibal at Zama, 202 B. C. Hannibal 
an exile. Cato and Carthage, 146 B. C; the city falls. From 
215-146, Rome extends her conquests. Macedonia a Roman 
province. Greece the province of Achaia. 

I. With what two struggles of the early republic are the 
names of Coriolanus and Camillus associated? 2. Describe 
Rome's overthrow of the Samnites. 3. What caused tlie re- 
bellion of the Latin cities, and how did it result? 4. What 
conditions led to the building of the Roman roads? 5. Describe 
the struggle of Rome with Magna Graecia. 6. How were 
Rome's new possessions classified and how governed? 7. De- 
scribe tlie rise to power of Carthage. 8. What led the Romans 



The Sovereign City ^^ 

to build a fleet, and what was their first naval victory? 9. 
Describe the expedition of Regulus. How did Rome follow 
up this defeat? 10. What Roman colonies were planted in 
Northern Italy at this time? 11. Describe the opening of the 
Second Punic War and the events leading up to it. 12. De- 
scribe the events which brought about the defeat of Hannibal. 
13. What futile efforts did he make to escape Roman ven- 
geance? 14. Give an account of the Third Punic War. I5» 
What further Mediterranean conquests did Rome make up to 
146 B. C? 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Walks m Rome. A. J. C. Hare. 

Early Rome. W. Ihne. (Epoch Series.) 

The Life of the G?-eeks and Romans. Guhl and Koner. 

Rulers of the South. F. M. Crawford. 

Roman and Medieval Art. W. H. Goodyear. 



CHAPTER V 

THE OVERTHROW OF THE REPUBLIC 

The wealth and power which came to Rome in her 
new position as the head of the civilized world brought 
with them also the seeds of decay. The rugged sim- 
plicity which had characterized the race was weakened 
by the corrupting influence of foreign ways of life, of 
Greek manners and thought, and by the luxury and 
vice of the Asiatics. 

The praetors and proconsuls, to whom the senate 
entrusted the government of the conquered lands, took 
advantage of their brief lease of authority to plunder 
the luckless provincials without mercy. There was a 
class of speculators at Rome who amassed wealth by 
farming the provincial taxes, their agents, the publi- 
cans, screwing the last farthing from the helpless 
peasants and tradesmen. From Greece and Asia the 
Romans took new conceptions of luxury, quite out of 
keeping with their former rudeness. Shiploads of 
paintings and statues came from Athens and Corinth 
and other Eastern capitals to adorn the mansions of 
the newly rich. Degenerate Greece sent its poets and 
dramatists to Rome, to cater to the coarse Roman 
taste. Greek became the speech of elegant inter- 
course, as it was already the medium of polite litera- 
ture, and Roman youths of the first families must needs 
go away from home to complete their education. The 

36 



The Overthrow of the Republic 37 

myriads of slaves which were shipped to Italy from 
every slave-mart about the Mediterranean, crowded 
honest Italian yeomen out of every form of manual 
labor, and sent them in droves to the city to become 
the prey of demagogues and a standing menace to the 
state. 

The old strife between patrician and plebeian, 
which had disturbed the early days of the republic, 
had subsided upon the passage of that Hortensian law 
(287 B. C.) which removed the political disabilities of 
the plebeian. Another century brought the republic 
to the first stage of a new form of party strife, more 
virulent than the first and less happy in its outcome. 

About the year 180 B. C, a law w^as passed restrict- 
ing the higher or "curule" offices to those who had 
served ten years in the army, and fixing a minimum 
age qualification for each of the successive grades 
(aedile, praetor, consul). The aedile was the controller 
of the city festivals, and this officer was accustomed 
to bid for votes by lavish entertainment of the popu- 
lace at his own expense. This custom worked the 
exclusion of all but wealthy men from the first step 
toward the consulship. The aedile usually contracted 
enormous debts during his term of office, and reim- 
bursed himself from the profits of his administration 
of the province to w^hich ex-magistrates were assigned 
as governors. The corruption of the provincial courts 
soon reached incredible proportions. 

The once high-minded senate was tainted by the 
admission of these venal and wealthy officials, and a 
senatorial party grew up to maintain this condition. 
Against these "optimates" were ranged the "popu- 



38 The Roman Empire 

lares" or people's party — populists, one might venture 
to say. This party had its stronghold in the comitia 
centuriata, the assembly where the rich and poor met 
on terms of political equality, and where the high 
officers were elected. The class of small farmers 
whose intelligence, frugality, and self-reliance are the 
strength of any nation, had disappeared from Italy. 
The corn and cattle kings, with their immense ranges 
and sheep-walks, had forced them to the wall. The 
spread of slavery had left them no resource. Such as 
possessed the cherished birthright of the Roman fran- 
chise flocked to the capital and, becoming infected 
with the miasma of political corruption, made their 
citizenship yield them a living. The offices of state 
were for sale to the man who should bid highest in 
cash or favor for the votes of the populace. 

A third party w^as the equestrian order, the tax- 
farming capitalists from whose ranks the "^enate was 
chiefly recruited. These sided now with the optimates 
and now with the populares, as interest or spite served. 
Besides these factions, the city population included 
many Italians who had not yet been admitted to the 
citizenship which they demanded. 

These, then, were the elements of danger in the 
last century of the republic: a venal senate, a dis- 
tressed and discontented citizen-body, and a large 
non-citizen population seeking recognition. 

The two brothers, Tiberius and Caius Gracchus, 
were the first leaders of the populace in their assault 
upon the privilege of the senatorial party. The Grac- 
chi were grandsons of Scipio Africanus, and they were 
the "jewels" which their mother Cornelia, had matched 



The Overthrow of the Republic 39 

against the baubles of her boastful visitor. The elder 
brother was elected one of the tribunes for the year 
133 B. C. He sought to lay the foundations of reform 
by recovering the public domain, which had passed 
into the control of a few great families, and by grant- 
ing these state lands in small homestead farms to the 
citizens and Italian allies. It was a wise and just 
proposition, but the senate, from self-interest, used 
every means in its power to block it. The law was 
finally "jammed through" and a commission appointed 
to execute its provisions; but Gracchus himself, stand- 
ing for reelection, was accused of ambition to be king, 
and was killed by a mob of young nobles — the first 
conspicuous victim of the conflict between the classes. 
The younger brother, Caius, as a member of the land 
allotment commission, consecrated himself to his 
brother's work. His political vision looked beyond 
the immediate relief of the dependent classes to far- 
reaching political reforms. In the two years for which 
he was tribune (123-122 B. C), he labored with tre- 
mendous energy. The rabble was won over by a law 
providing that the state should furnish grain at a 
nominal price to all. This bait swelled the population 
by thousands of idle citizens. The law of Tiberius 
was reasserted, colonies were founded in Italy and 
the foreign provinces, to relieve the crowded popula- 
tion. Next the equestrian order was detached from 
its natural ally, the senate, by the grant of special and 
lucrative privileges. These acts aroused the senate to 
fight for its life, and when Gracchus took the unpopu- 
lar step of proposing to extend the full citizenship to 
the Latin allies, the fickle populace, poisoned against 



40 The Roman Empire 

him by the paid agents of the senate, grew cold and 
threw him over. Defeated for reelection, and branded 
as a public enemy by the senate, he was hunted out of 
the city and killed himself to escape his foes (121 B. C. ). 

Public affairs at Rome went on from bad to worse. 
The case of Jugurtha (111-105 B. C.) is an example. 
This prince usurped by foul means the throne of 
Rome's subject kingdom of Numidia in Africa. His 
gold first closed the mouths of the senatorial investi- 
gating commission, and then turned back the consul 
who came over with an army to chastise him. Sum- 
moned to Rome to answer his accusers, he silenced 
them with his bribes, and when at last the populace 
forced the unwilling senate to take up arms against 
him, he shook off the dust of Rome from his feet, 
exclaiming, "O venal city, thou, too, art only waiting 
for a purchaser!" 

In one of the armies which were sent against Jugur- 
tha were two men destined to a great place in history, 
Caius Marius, the rough and hard-working son of an 
Italian farmer, and Lucius Cornelius Sulla, a young 
and reckless scion of an ancient patrician stock. 
Marius, though not belonging to the office-holding 
set, took advantage of the popular disgust with the 
feeble conduct of the Numidian campaign, boldly 
offered himself for the consulship, and was elected 
(107 B. C). He raised an army from the city rabble, 
perfected it by drill, and quickly crushed Jugurtha, 
who could not stand against a man of honesty and 
energy. The whole miserable business exhibited the 
instability of the commonwealth. The highest places 
in the state were filled with bribe-takers. Further- 



The Overthrow of the RepubUc 41 

more the successful candidacy of Caius Marius, a *'new 
man," without wealth or family connection, showed 
how easily a successful general might ride to power 
on the suffrage of the populace. There was work 
enough for a strong arm in the defense of the Italian 
frontier against the restless hordes from the northern 
forests, which threatened to pass the Alpine barrier 
and inundate the peninsula. The citizens, panic- 
stricken by the inability of the senatorial generals to 
check the advance of the Cimbri and Teutones, set law 
and custom at defiance by raising Marius again to the 
consulship and keeping him in office for five successive 
years (104-100 B. C). Their confidence was justified 
by a series of victories ending at Vercellse which made 
Italy safe from Teutonic invasion for centuries. 

The victor became the popular idol. He was hailed 
as "the second Camillus," "the third Romulus. " His 
very rusticity of manner, so hateful to the aristocrats, 
commended him to the democracy as a Roman of the 
good old sort. He had done brave service for his 
country, but his military policy had altered the army 
from a national guard of militiamen to a regular army 
of professional soldiers — a dangerous weapon in the 
hands of an ambitious commander. 

In the interval of the foreign wars the old strife 
betw^een the orders flamed out again, and in his sixth 
consulship, Marius forfeited the favor of the populace 
by using force to quell their turbulence. He left Rome 
in disgrace, cherishing the soothsayer's prophecy that 
he should live to be seven times consul. 

Party strife waxed into civil war with Marius and 
Sulla at the head of the opposing factions. In 88' 



4^ The Roman Empire 

B. C, the army under Sulla, the senatorial general, 
captured Rome, which had been held by Marius and 
the popular party. No sooner had Sulla left Italy 
again to chastise Mithridates, king of Pontus, who was 
in full revolt, than the popular party again gained the 
upper hand in the city. Marius emerged from his 
hiding place and lent the prestige of his name to 
Cinna, the popular leader. Together they recaptured 
Rome and the chief men of the senatorial party paid 
with their lives for the insults which they had heaped 
upon "the third Romulus." He lived to see himself 
chosen consul for the seventh time {S6 B. C.) and died 
a broken old man. 

The popular revolution at Rome made Sulla an out- 
law. But an outlaw at the head of a devoted and vic- 
torious army, and the representative of a great and 
powerful political and social faction was a man to be 
reckoned with. For four years he prosecuted his cam- 
paign in Greece and Asia, leaving the consul Cinna to 
glut himself with the blood and gold of the optimates. 
In S^ B. C. , having finished his business in Asia, he 
landed in Italy at the head of a veteran army. Cneius 
Pompeius, a young knight (better known to the 
world as Pompey the Great), came to his aid with 
three legions. Conciliating the Italians by his guar- 
anty of their citizenship, he raised the standard of the 
senate and the restoration of the old constitution. 
When, for the second time, in 82 B. C, the capital of 
the world fell into his hands, Sulla's slaughters eclipsed 
the political murders of Marius and Cinna. Lists 
were prepared of all the leading men in Italy who had 
taken sides against the senate, and more than five 



The Ov^erthrow of the Repubhc 43 

thousand of the proscribed lost life and property in 
this wholesale destruction. To reestablish the sen- 
ate, its champion annulled the authority of the censors 
to remove members, limited the ambition and influ- 
ence of the tribunes, crippled the popular assemblies, 
and left them subject to the senate. 

When Sulla, called "Felix" (the fortunate), died in 
78 B. C, the senate had its last opportunity of prov- 
ing its right to rule. But its strength was gone. Its 
own generals, Pompey and Crassus, who received the 
consulship (70 B. C.) as a reward for ridding the state 
of the outlaws Sertorius and Spartacus, themselves 
curried favor with the populace by restoring the power 
of the tribunes and sweeping away the safeguards of 
the Sullan constitution. Pompey was on all sides 
hailed as the coming man. In 67 B. C, he was 
clothed by a special law with unlimited power to ex- 
terminate the pirates of the Mediterranean. The next 
year he took up the languishing war against the irre- 
pressible Mithridates, and carried the Roman eagles 
to victory, from the Black Sea to the Jordan. While 
Pompey lingered in the far East, great events were 
taking place at home. A deep laid conspiracy for the 
overthrow of the government by the murder of certain 
senators, was prepared by Lucius Sergius Catilina 
("Catiline") a profligate senator. It was believed 
that behind the motley band of Catiline lurked such 
respectable leaders of the democracy as Julius Caesar. 
On the eve of its consummation the plot was laid bare 
by the consul Marcus Tullius Cicero, in the most cele- 
brated of all his speeches. The next great conspiracy 
did not fail. 



44 The Roman Empire 

Caius Julius Caesar was born in Rome, July 12, 102 
B. C, of an old patrician family. To his Aunt Julia's 
marriage with Marius, he probably owed his first office 
in the state. He married Cinna's daughter and dared 
refuse to put her away at Sulla's command. Though 
numbered in the proscription, his friends saved him, 
when Sulla is reported to have said, "In this young 
Caesar there is many a Marius." After Sulla's death 
he served as quaestor in Spain, and later, as aedile in 
Rome, burdened himself with debts by the magnifi- 
cence of his expenditure for the amusement of the 
public. Caesar's clear vision saw the weakness of the 
state, and how to cure it. He would stop this mur- 
derous and lingering strife of the parties by crush- 
ing both in his own mailed hand. To carry out this 
plan he needed an army as powerful and as devoted as 
that of Pompey. Accordingly he entered into a pri- 
vate arrangement with the latter general and with 
Crassus, the financier. This bargain, for such was 
the First Triumvirate or "Committee of Three," 
gave to Pompey a formal "triumph," to Crassus cer- 
tain coveted privileges for his order, and to Caesar, one 
year as consul (59 B. C.) followed by five years as 
pro-consular governor of Gaul, where he might pay 
his debts and prepare his army. The agreement was 
carried out. In 56 B. C, the three magnates met at 
Lucca to renew their compact. Caesar was to have 
a second term in Gaul, and at its close to be consul at 
Rome. Pompey and Crassus were to be consuls in 55 
B. C, and then have Spain and Syria to govern for 
five years. This agreement was never kept. Crassus 
died in his Syrian province. Pompey let his lieuten- 



The Overthrow of the Republic 45 

ants govern for him in Spain while he remained at 
Rome. 

Great and true reports reached the senate concern- 
ing Caesar's masterly campaigns in Gaul and Britain. 
The news brought apprehension rather than delight, 
for the senators dreaded the day when this known foe 
to their order, the kinsman of Marius, the son-in-law 
of Cinna should return to claim the chief magistracy. 
The senate insisted that if Caesar wished to stand for 
the promised consulship he must resign his command 
and present himself before the electors in Rome. 
Caesar's friends at length agreed to this, provided that 
Pompey should betake himself to his Spanish prov- 
ince. The struggle, which was nominally between 
Caesar and the senate, was actually a duel for the 
supremacy which must end in monarchical power for 
either Pompey or Caesar, When, in December, 50 
B. C, Pompey assumed command of the army in Italy 
at the request of the senate, Caesar's resolution was 
taken. In January he crossed the Rubicon, which 
separated his province from the territory of Italy. 
Moving with rapidity and precision, within three 
months Caesar was master of the peninsula. Pompey 
and the senators crossed the Adriatic to gather head 
against the usurper. Thither Caesar followed them, 
and at Pharsalus in Thessaly, in August, 48 B. C, put 
them to rout. Pompey was murdered in his flight. 
It was the conqueror's policy not to build until he had 
laid the foundations sure. The Romans heaped their 
honors upon him, the consulship for five years, the 
tribunate for life, the dictatorship for one year, but 
he did not return to the capital so long as enemies 



4-6 The Roman Empire 

remained abroad. He passed through the East rebuk- 
ing rebellion and restoring order and peace with such 
promptness and vigor that he might well announce his 
success in his memorable formula "Veni, Vidi, Vici," 
"I came, I saw, I conquered." From one end of the 
Mediterranean to the other he pursued the fragments 
of the Pompeian and senatorial armies. Within three 
years he was the acknowledged master of the Roman 
world. He was in fact king, though ancient prejudice 
compelled him to forego the title and the crown. By 
the forms of law he centered in himself unprecedented 
power. He had himself made dictator for ten years, 
censor and high priest for life. All responsible author- 
ity converged in him. Candidates for office, like the 
laws, must have his approval. In army, legislature, 
and religion, he stood supreme and alone. The 
ancient constitutional forms, senate, comitia, consul- 
ship, remained mere simulacra. The life and virtue 
had gone out of them. The senate was degraded to 
the rank of an advisory counciL Caesar swelled its 
membership with new men from Italy, Gaul, and Spain. 
The full citizenship was extended to the Cisalpine 
Gauls. The great body of Roman law was reduced to 
a code and published for the guidance of the law 
courts. Even the calendar was reached in these 
reforms and the Julian solar year of 365 days and six 
hours replaced the ancient Roman year of twelve lunar 
months. Csesar curbed the plunderers of the provinces 
by making their financial officers responsible to him- 
self. Criminals had often escaped by possessing the 
right of appeal to an easily swayed popular assembly. 
Caesar, as the fountain of justice, now became the 



The Overthrow of the Republic 47 

court of last resort. Looking out over the broad 
domain of Rome, he endeavored to fix a scientific and 
readily defensible frontier on the line of the Rhine, the 
Alps, the Danube, the Caucasus, and the Euphrates, 
recognizing the folly of fighting for a precarious foot- 
hold beyond these natural boundaries. 

Csesar stained his victories by none of those political 
massacres which had made former revolutions a reign 
of terror. But his pardoned enemies could not forgive 
him. They refused to be conciliated, and continued 
to intrigue against him. Cicero, the orator, was at 
heart, at least, with this senatorial faction which 
sought to restore the old constitution. The old re- 
publican sentiment, in the breasts of honest conserva- 
tives like Junius Brutus, was made the basis of a 
counterplot. On the ides of March 44 B. C, a throng 
of senators "the liberators" to use their own term, 
struck Csesar down with their daggers in the senate 
house. Brutus, the fanatic, dipped his blade in Caesar's 
blood and brandished it in the face of Cicero, crying, 
"Liberty is restored." 

But liberty was not restored. Caesar's friend, Mar- 
cus Antonius, (Mark Antony) supported by the army 
and by the populace, who proved to be beneficiaries 
under the dead man's will, aimed at the position which 
Caesar had held. Caesar Octavianus, the adoptive 
son of the great Roman, was taken up by the senate 
under Cicero's leadership, as the champion of the 
revolution, but the young politician sagaciously made 
his peace with his father's friends, Antony and Lepi- 
dus. This Second Triumvirate (43 B. C. ) partitioned 
the world among its members and then routed the 



48 The Roman Empire 

forces which the conspirators had assembled at Philippi 
in Thrace (42 B. C). Brutus and Cassius killed them- 
selves and the triumvirs were left the undisputed suc- 
cessors to Caesar's dominion and power. Their alliance 
soon fell apart. Lepidus was dropped ;^6 B. C, and 
Mark Antony lingered in the East under the fascina- 
tion of Cleopatra, while his young and strenuous col- 
league was entrenching his position in Rome. In 32 
B. C, Octavianus and Antony allowed their differences 
to culminate in civil war. The fleets of the West and 
the East met off Actium on the coast of Greece (31 
B. C), with decisive results. Antony took his own life 
and Octavianus Caesar was left the sole successor to 
the empire which his greater kinsman had consolidated 
and pacified. 

SUMMARY AND QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

Effects of foreign conquest shown in growing luxury and 
vice. Provincial taxes farmed out by speculators. Slaves 
destroy free labor. About 180 B. C. higher offices (asdile, 
praetor, consul) restricted to men of ten years' army service. 
JEdile controls city festivals; enormous debts; becomes pro- 
vincial governor and corruption reigns. Corruption of the 
senate, the "optimates"; the people's party, "populares"; 
the equestrian party, tax-farming capitalists. 

Elements of danger: A venal senate, a distressed citizen 
body, a large non-citizen population seeking recognition. 
Tiberius Gracchus, 133 B. C; division of the public domain; 
assassinated by the nobles. Caius Gracchus, 122 B. C; grain 
law; colonies founded; equestrian order detached from senate; 
proposes citizenship for the allies; defeated, and kills himself 
to escape his foes. 

Jugurtha usurps Numidia, buys off the senate commission 
and the consular army. Caius Marius, a man of the people; 



The Overthrow of the Republic 49 

offers himself for consulship; defeats Jugurtha; kept consul for 
five years, 104-100 B. C; drives back the Teutonic invaders; 
the army becomes a body of professional soldiers. Party strife 
becomes civil war: Sulla with senatorial army captures Rome 
from Marius and popular party, 88 B. C; he departs to crush 
Mithridates of Pontus; Marius and Cinna recapture Rome. 
Sulla an outlaw with an army; campaigns in Greece and Asia; 
lands in Italy 83 B. C; joined by young Pompey; reign of 
terror at Rome. Pompey gains favor with the people; exter- 
minates Mediterranean pirates dy B.C.; conquers Mithridates; 
Catiline and Cicero. 

Julius Caesar, nephew of Marius, son-in-law of Cinna; sees 
the weakness of the state; the first triumvirate with Pompey 
and Crassus; Pompey a "triumph"; Crassus privileges for his 
order. Csesar governor of Gaul for five years. Conference at 
Lucca in 56 B. C; Crassus dies in Syria; Caesar's campaigns 
in Gaul; crosses the Rubicon; struggle with Pompey; Phar- 
salus; master of the Roman world in three years; Julian re- 
forms; his enemies conspire against him; ides of March, 44. 
B. C. The second triumvirate: Octavianus, Lepidus, and 
Antony; the conspirators overthrown at Philippi; war between 
Antony and Octavianus at Actium, 31 B. C; Octavianus sole 
master. 

I. Why did the Roman character deteriorate in the last 
century of the Republic? 2. How did the provinces suffer 
under Roman government? 3. What effect had slavery? 4. 
How did the position of the aedile foster corruption? 5. De- 
scribe the " optimates," " populares," and "equestrians." 6. 
What were the elements of danger in the last century of the 
Republic? 7. Describe the futile efforts of the Gracchi to 
bring about reforms. 8. How does Jugurtha' s position show 
the corruption of Rome? g. Describe the rise to power of 
Caius Marius. 10, How did the army change under his leader- 
ship? II. How did he regain his ascendency over Sulla? 
12. Describe Sulla's return to Rome. 13. How did the senate 
decline in power at this time? 14. How did popular favor deal 
with Pompey? 15. What was the conspiracy of Catiline? 
16. Trace the career of Caesar up to the battle of Pharsalus. 17. 



50 The Roman Empire 

Describe his organization of the government. i8. Why was he 
overthrown? 19. Describe the rise and fall of the Second 
Triumvirate. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The Gracchi, Ma?'uis a7id Sulla. Beesly. (Epoch Series). 

Taine's Italy : Rome and Naples. 

Ancient Rome in the Light of Recefit Discoveries. Lanciani. 

Roman Life in the Days of Cicero. A. J. Church. 

The Roman Triumvirates. Merivale. (Epoch Series.) 

The Early Empire. W. W. Capes. (Epoch Series.) 



CHAPTER VI 

THE ROMAN EMPIRE 

The accession of Caesar Octavianus brought peace 
to the troubled Roman world. After the battle of 
Actium, the bronze doors of the temple of Janus, 
which always stood open in time of war, were closed 
for the first time since the defeat of Hannibal. Aided 
by his two great counselors, Agrippa and Maecenas, to 
whose energy and sagacity as much as to his own 
blending of subtlety and force the new master owed 
his eminence, the new Caesar applied himself to the 
uncompleted task of settling the government along the 
lines marked out by Julius. Though inferior in most 
respects to that "foremost man of all the world," his 
uncle and adoptive parent, he must have the credit of 
succeeding where the first of the Caesars failed. He 
disguised the more obnoxious phases of the new des- 
potism in the familiar robes of republican forms. By 
scarcely noticeable gradations the time-honored polit- 
ical institutions were transformed into the new empire. 

Though Octavianus brushed aside the title and 
trappings of royalty, he accepted the designation "im- 
perator" and raised it to such a degree that it has 
survived to this day in the form "emperor" as a loftier 
name than king. Even his family name of "Csesar" 
still lives as a title of the highest rank in the forms 
"Kaiser" and "Czar." The emperor united in his 

51 



52 The Roman Empire 

own person all the functions of the ancient constitu- 
tional officers, civil, military, and religious. To 
comprehend such manifold dignities the new title, 
Augustus ("consecrated by the Augurs") was devised, 
and by this name he is best known to the world. Sex- 
tilis, the sixth month, was henceforth called Augustus 
(August) as the name of Quintilis had been changed 
to Julius (July) in honor of his kinsman. 

Under the early empire the government of the prov- 
inces was brought to an unprecedented condition of 
efficiency and honesty. The provincials grew proud 
of the name of Roman, which stood for law, order, 
and justice, instead of violence and greed. Gauls, 
Spaniards, Greeks, Asiatics, Numidians, and Egyp- 
tians acquired the Latin language, obeyed the laws, 
and copied the architecture of Rome. The provin- 
cials in great numbers settled in the Eternal City, 
which now began to form its character as the mother 
city (metropolis) of the world. 

Averse to luxury himself, and living with almost 
ostentatious simplicity, Augustus filled his capital with 
magnificent structures. It was said that he "found 
Rome brick and left it marble," so complete and so 
splendid was the material transformation. His name 
still stands for the encouragement of letters, so re- 
markable was the literary production of the time. 
Until now the practical Romans had paid little atten- 
tion to literature, though the commentaries of Caesar, 
the histories of Sallust, and the orations, essays, and 
letters of Cicero take us back to the last gasp of the 
commonwealth. Under the stimulus of Maecenas's 
favor a chorus of poets burst into song: Vergil, whose 



The Roman Empire ^^ 

y^neid glorifies the new dynasty; Horace, the master 
of song and satire; the elegiac poets Tibullus, Pro- 
pertius, and Ovid, not to mention Livy, the prose his- 
torian of the republic. 

The wars of the empire were for many years con- 
fined to expeditions beyond the border. The Parthi- 
ans in the East, and the northern barbarians of the 
forests along the Rhine and Danube were the most 
formidable enemies of the Roman power. The slaugh- 
ter of three legions in the Teutoberg wood (9 A. D. ) 
by Hermann, the German hero, embittered the last 
years of the emperor. Aged and broken in health, 
unhappy in his family relations, and given over to 
gloomy reflections, from w^hich he would cry out, 
"Varus, Varus, give me back my legions," he died in 
his seventy-sixth year, after having exercised sover- 
eign power for forty-five years. The senate proclaimed 
his divinity and established a college of priests to con- 
duct his worship. Upon the walls of one of his 
temples have been found tablets recording what he 
considered to be the great events of his reign. But 
of the event which most profoundly influenced the 
world he knew nothing. Yet in Bethlehem of Judea, 
an obscure village of his realm in the twenty-seventh 
year of his reign was born one Jesus, whose fame and 
influence were to surpass Caesar's own, and whose 
religion should outlive that of deified emperors and 
all the gods of the Roman pantheon. 

Tiberius Caesar, the adoptive son and heir of 
Augustus, succeeded to the purple. Under him Rome 
began to learn what it was to be under the sway of an 
absolute monarch. For Tiberius was a vicious and 



54 The Roman Empire 

cruel wretch. Parts of the threadbare forms of the re- 
public were boldly cast off. The sovereign's authority- 
was buttressed by the new laws against treason which 
soon filled the world with spies and informers eager 
to accuse the unwary of plotting against the august 
head of the state. A fortified camp was established 
just outside the city and there the praetorian troops, 
the emperor's bodyguard, were quartered, to hold the 
populace in check. The later emperors of the Julian 
family are remembered by their follies and vices — the 
crack-brained Caligula; the puppet Claudius, ruled by 
his freedmen and his abominable wives; and Nero, 
conspicuous even in such company for extravagant 
folly and relentless cruelty. In 64 A. D., fire swept 
the densest quarter of the city, and the report went 
round that the emperor viewed the scene from the 
palace roof "fiddling while Rome burned." To coun- 
teract the rumor that the emperor had set the fire, the 
poor followers of Jesus were accused, and Nero inau- 
gurated the first persecution of the Christians, taxing 
his ingenuity to devise strange modes of torture for 
the innocent victims. The burned district he seized 
upon for a private park, building there the Golden 
House, which was a world's wonder. The troops 
arose in rebellion against this monster and drove him 
from the throne. Out of the confusion which fol- 
lowed emerged a rough, plain soldier of high military 
rank, but of common birth, Flavius Vespasianus. He 
and his son Titus, the conqueror of Jerusalem, were 
long known as "good emperors." They built the 
great Flavian amphitheater, which still stands, the 
best type of the solid strength of the Roman architec- 



The Roman Empire 55 

ture. The arch which commemorates the great deeds 
of Titus still bears the tablets which tell of the fall of 
Jerusalem and the plunder of the holy places of the 
Jews. The ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii, which 
are being dug out of the Vesuvian lava and ashes, 
reveal to us the luxury of Roman cities in the days of 
the Flavians, for it was in the reign of Titus, 79 A.D., 
that the appalling catastrophe of the eruption took place. 

Domitian, the last of the Flavians, ranks with Nero 
and Tiberius for cruelty and despotism. At his death 
the praetorian guard compelled the senate to select a 
good man, Nerva, for emperor, and he, dying soon, 
passed the succession to Trajan, a provincial by birth, 
a wise statesman, and a brave and energetic com- 
mander. The Roman arms had little to boast of since 
the day of Julius. But now the emperor led the vic- 
torious legions beyond the Danube, and even to the 
Euphrates and the plains of Babylon. He extended 
the boundaries of the empire to their farthest limits. 
The city he beautified and ennobled by his buildings. 
His lofty aqueducts brought water from the moun- 
tains to the Roman fountains. He enlarged and im- 
proved the theater, the chief resort of the populace, 
and his forum, adorned with his arch, his equestrian 
statue, and his sculptured column, was perhaps the 
most perfect achievement of Roman architecture. 

Hadrian, whom Trajan chose to continue his work, 
was worthy of the honor. He traveled through the 
length and breadth of the Roman world inspecting and 
strengthening defenses, inquiring into strange reli- 
gions, and giving himself thoroughly to the vast task of 
governing the realm which had fallen to his hand. It 



56 The Roman Empire 

was but natural that such an administrator should take 
measures to codify the Roman law. At his death 
(138 A. D.) he left two legacies to his people, the 
Mausoleum on the Vatican hill, now the papal fortress 
of San Angelo, and his adoptive heir, the emperor 
Antoninus, called "Pius" -or "the Good," whose long 
and peaceful reign leaves little for the historian of 
wars and tumults. His successor was the philosopher 
Marcus Aurelius. There was little peace for this 
peace-loving emperor. The prosperous realm was like 
a house begirt with robbers. Its population of one 
hundred and twenty million souls were happy and 
prosperous, secure in the enjoyment of their religions, 
and obedient to the code of Roman law. Beyond the 
natural or man-made barriers of the empire from North 
Britain to the steppes of Russia, dwelt other inchoate 
nations as tough of thew and resolute of spirit as the 
Romans of the early republic. They had reached 
various stages of culture from savagery toward civili- 
zation, but to the haughty Roman of the empire all 
were accounted "barbarians." The wealth of the 
provinces was a standing lure to these men of woods 
and plains. By garrisoned fortresses, by unbridged 
rivers, by long lines of ramparts (like Hadrian's wall 
across Britain and the "Roman Limit" linking the 
upper courses of the Rhine and Danube), Rome strove 
to shield her riches, but her thirty legions did not 
suffice to hold a thousand miles of exposed frontier 
against an ever-present foe. The "philosopher" em- 
peror lived in the saddle. Each year had its campaign 
against the German hordes, pressing ever closer toward 
Italy and the city whose fame filled the world. 



The Roman Empire 57 

At times a strenuous soldier prince like Septimius 
Severus (193-21 1 A. D.), or Aurelian (270-275 A. D.) 
would hurl back the onrushing tide. "' Restitutor 
Orbis^'' the "Reestablisher of the Universe," Aure- 
lian was called, though his construction of massive 
walls about his capital was a melancholy confession of 
impending peril. Diocletian, who gained the throne 
in 284 A. D., more clearly deserved the title. The 
better to provide for the defense he raised a trusted 
soldier to the rank of Augustus and entrusted to him 
the western half of the realm with his headquarters at 
Mediolanum (Milan). His own court he located at 
Nicomedia in Bithynia, The plan was soon amplified 
by the appointment of two other colleagues with the 
title of Caesar. The partnership four harmonious 
rulers infused fresh vigor into military and civil ad- 
ministration. A final effort was made to rid the em- 
pire of the troublesome sect of Christians by a general 
persecution — the last which marred the history of 
Rome. 

SUMMARY AND QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

The Empire: Augustus Caesar; law and order in the 
empire; Roman laws, language, and architecture; the city 
beautified; Agrippa and Maecenas; Vergil, Horace, Ovid, 
Livy; danger from the northern barbarians; Varus and Her- 
mann; the birth of Christ. 

Tiberius Caesar, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero, 14-68 A. D.; 
an age of despotic tyranny. Vespasian and Titus; the Colos- 
seum; the fall of Jerusalem; Herculaneum and Pompeii, 79 
A. D. Trajan, 98-117 A. D., leads die Roman legions into the 
far East; builds aqueducts; his forum, column, and triumphal 
arch. Hadrian, 117-138 A. D.; travels QxtQusively through his 



58 The Roman Empire 

realm; Castle of S. Angelo. Marcus Aurelius, 161-180 A. D., 
a peaceful empire of 120,000,000; pressure from the barbarians. 
Rome's thirty legions to hold a thousand miles of frontier. 
Later rulers struggle against the impending peril. Diocletian, 
284 A. D., moves his court to Nicomedia in Bithynia; places 
his colleague Maximian at Mediolanum (Milan); persecution of 
Christians. 

I. How did Augustus successfully establish his empire? 2. 
What wars were still necessary at this period? 3. What was 
the greatest event of the reign of Augustus? 4. How did the 
empire degenerate under the emperors from Tiberius to Nero? 
5. What great events occurred in the reigns of Titus and Ves- 
pasian? 6. What buildings in Rome date from this period? 
7. What did Rome owe to the Emperor Trajan? 8. What to 
Hadrian? 9. What contrast appears between the character of 
Marcus Aurelius and the life which he was obliged to lead? 
10. Show how the pressure of the barbarians was constantly 
felt by the later emperors? 11. How did Diocletian attempt a 
more effective defense? 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The Age of the Antotiities. W. W. Capes. (Epoch Series.) 
Roman Life in Plijiys Time. 
Society in Rome Under the Ccesars. Inge. 
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Gibbon. 
Fall of the Roman Empire. Sismondi. 
Provinces of the Roman Empire from Ccesar to Diocletian. 
Mommsen. 

Pompeii. Thomas H. Dyer. 

The Destruction of Ancie7tt Rome. Lanciani. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE BREAKING UP OF THE EMPIRE 

For three and a half centuries Rome maintained 
imperial sway over southern Europe, northern Africa, 
and western Asia. Internal peace, a common language 
and literature, and a universal law prevailed through- 
out this vast assemblage of once independent states. 
The rights of citizenship, once so exclusively reserved 
for dwellers in Rome or its colonists, were thrown open 
to all freemen by the Emperor Caracalla (211-217 
A. D.). Many generations of men were born and died 
under its beneficent rule, until the civilized world grew 
into the habit of believing that the empire which had 
outlasted all other governments was destined to be 
perpetual. However harassed along its borders by 
envious barbarians, however ruffled from time to time 
by rival claimants for the great prize of its sover- 
eignty, no thought of its possible overthrow had 
entered the mind of man. 

The partnership plan of administration devised by 
Diocletian, did not long survive him. Out of the 
scramble for power which ensued came up one general, 
strong of arm and brain, to set the world again to 
rights. At the head of his devoted legions Constan- 
tine the Great fought his way from Britain to Rome, 
crushed the rival Caesars, and about 323 A. D., made 
himself master of the empire. To meet the changed 

59 



6o The Roman Empire 

conditions he introduced radical changes of adminis- 
trative system, founded a new capital, and adopted 
the new religion. 

Having disbanded the praetorian guard, which had 
made and unmade so many emperors, he divided the 
realm into four prefectures: the East, Illyricum, Italy, 
and Gaul, each greatly subdivided. He separated the 
military from the civil power and covered the state 
with a swarm of officials responsible to himself. His 
court threw off the affected simplicity which had dis- 
tinguished so many of his predecessors, and began to 
accumulate the paraphernalia of royalty — robes, dia- 
dems, and high-sounding titles of honor. Although 
there is truth in the saying that Rome had unified the 
world, it is not to be disguised that the empire was 
really dual, Graeco-Roman. The Roman West, the 
younger and more virile civilization, had bent the 
Hellenized East to its power. The conquest had 
extended Roman law and order over these Eastern 
countries, and given a certain establishment to the 
Latin language, but in other respects the Greek lands 
remained Greek, while the Gauls and Britons, the men 
of the Rhine and the Danube, owed to the Roman 
conqueror all that they had of civilization. In lan- 
guage and law, customs of life and habits of thought 
they were Roman. Constantine's removal of the capi- 
tal tended to deepen this shade of distinction into a 
line of cleavage. 

For his new capital (Nova Roma) Constantine the 
Great chose the finest site in the ancient world. On 
the shore of Europe, confronting Asia, he built the 
city which has ever since borne his name. Constant!- 



The Breaking Up of the Empire 6i 

nople. Forty thousand Goths are said to have been 
employed in its construction, and at its completion 
hundreds of the first families of Rome migrated 
thither. In May, 330 A. D., the new Rome was 
solemnly dedicated, not in the name of Roman Jupi- 
ter or Greek Apollo, but to the Jewish Mary, the virgin 
mother of that Jesus whom the procurator of Tiberius 
Caesar had crucified between two thieves. 

The religion of Jesus was zealously preached 
throughout the empire within the generation after the 
Savior's crucifixion, and struck root not only among 
the slaves and common people, but even in Caesar's 
household. The rising church was thought to be in- 
imical to the empire, and was the victim of repeated 
persecutions. Twenty years after Diocletian's boast 
that he had annihilated this "superstition," Chris- 
tianity was officially proclaimed as the religion of the 
empire. 

Constantine, converted by a vision of the cross, 
saw in the new faith a means of consolidating his 
power. He placed himself at the head of the Christian 
community, and convened, in 325 A. D., the first 
general church council at Nicaea (Council of Nice). 
His death was followed by a reaction, but heathenism 
as a system had received its death blow. Soon we 
find mobs of Christians throwing down the statues of 
the old gods. The Emperor Theodosius (379-395 
A. D.) forbade the observance of the ancient heathen 
rites. Expelled from the cities, heathenism was long 
cherished by the rustics {pagani)^ "pagans." 

Theodosius divided his empire between his two 
sons. The eastern section, with its capital at Con- 



62 The Roman Empire 

stantinople, continued to exist for another thousand 
years, until its capture by the Mohammedan Turks. 
The West, whose seat of government remained in Italy, 
was whirled along the road to ruin, the ruin out of 
whose wreckage rose the kingdoms of medieval and 
modern Europe. 

North of the Alps and the Danube the German 
tribes had dwelt for centuries. They were men of 
strong physique and of warlike and unconquerable 
spirit. They practised agriculture rudely, but pre- 
ferred the excitements of war and the chase to the dull 
round of toil. Their settlements were mere hamlets 
of wooden huts. They worshiped the forces of 
nature, personified in many deities. Women among 
them were held in high respect. Drunkenness was 
their besetting vice. The Romans had come in con- 
tact with their restless bands in the days of Marius 
and Caesar, and had come fairly off in these encoun- 
ters. But in the third century the dwellers in the 
northern forests were thrown into great commotion by 
the advent of the Huns, a "yellow peril" from Asia, 
who crossed the Volga and attacked the Germans in 
the rear. From this time dates that tremendous 
migration of the nations before which the Roman 
defenses at length gave way. 

The West Goths were the first tribe to win a per- 
manent foothold within the Roman pale. Aurelian 
granted them residence in the Balkan peninsula, and 
before the death, of; Constantine, they were serving 
by the thousand under the Roman standards. Alaric, 
the greatest of their kings, invaded Italy, and threat- 
ened the capital. The Romans endeavored to save 



The Breaking Up of the Empire 6^ 

the city by paying a ransom, but the respite was brief. 
In August, 410 A. D., Alaric, king of the West Goths, 
entered the Eternal City as victor. Rome was no 
longer the capital, even of the Western Empire, for a 
safer imperial residence had been found at Ravenna, 
but its palaces and shops supplied rich booty, only the 
churches being spared by these "Christian" marauders. 

The pressure of the Huns, the successes of the 
Goths in the southeast, or the general decay of the 
Roman defense — perhaps all these causes together — 
set on foot a confederacy of the western nations 
(Sueves, Burgundians, and Vandals) about the time of 
Alaric's raid. They were pagans, as yet unsoftened 
by residence within the empire or by the influence of 
the Church. The wing of their advance which threat- 
ened Italy was thrown back (406 A. D.), but the main 
body swept across the Rhine into Roman Gaul, which 
had been stripped of its defenders in the supreme 
effort to hold Italy. 

From the Rhine to the Pyrenees, Gaul was a coun- 
try of fertile fields and populous marts. Four centu- 
ries and a half of occupation had made it scarcely less 
Roman than Italy itself. The Christian faith espe- 
cially had taken root among its people; the Gallic 
churches were wealthy and the Gallic bishops power- 
ful. The Rhenish frontier, long guarded by the steady 
valor of the legionaries, had latterly been as faithfully 
defended by the Franks, a well-disposed German 
people, who, having lost some of their rudeness in 
their dealings with the provincials, had been allowed 
to settle along the lower course of the river. Into 
this smiling quarter of the Roman world now burst the 



64 The Roman Empire 

barbarians, plundering palaces, burning churches, mur- 
dering priest and worshiper, and dragging citizen 
and matron into slavery. The Burgundians settled 
along the Rhone. The Sueves and Vandals pushed on 
into the Spanish peninsula; the Vandals, under Gen- 
seric, carried the terror of their name even into 
Africa. The West Goths, coming up from Italy, 
founded kingdoms in southern Gaul and in Spain, 
which lasted until smitten by the Mohammedan inva- 
sion from Africa in the eighth century.. Still other 
German tribes, seafarers like the Jutes, Angles, and 
Saxons, launched out upon the German ocean and came 
to Britain, a serene and prosperous province of Rome, 
where they established the group of petty kingdoms 
which in time were brought under the scepter of one 
Anglo-Saxon king. 

The first half of the fifth century saw this dismem- 
berment of the western empire of Rome. Midway of 
that century Attila the Hun, whose nomadic hordes 
had terrorized the north for a generation, rode through 
the empire carrying dismay before him. Law and 
order, Christianity and the vast fabric of Roman civili- 
zation, in which the rudest German saw something to 
admire and copy, meant nothing to this rough-riding 
Asiatic. His almond eye saw in the empire nothing 
more than a well-stocked warehouse to be pillaged, 
a preserve for hunting slaves. His progress was 
stopped in Gaul (451 A. D.) in a world-famous fight 
at Chalons, that "battle of the nations," in which all 
the friends of civilization, Roman and German, rallied 
against the destroyer. The next year the Huns entered 
Italy from the north. Fugitives from before his 



The Breaking Up of the Empire 6^ 

advance founded Venice among the unapproachable 
morasses of the Adriatic. Rome saved herself by 
ransom, and death interposed to save Europe from his 
further ravage. 

The battle of Chalons was the last great effort of 
the Western Empire for self-preservation. Even bri- 
bery failed to save the once imperial city from her next 
greedy foe. In 455 A. D. , the Vandal chieftain, Gen- 
seric, stripped palace and church of gold and statuary, 
and sailed back to Africa, his ships groaning beneath 
their load of loot. The shadow of departed power 
still clung to Rome, and the title was kept alive by 
the series of so-called "phantom emperors" until in 
476 A. U., the last of the line Romulus, nicknamed 
Augustulus, "Augustus the Little," was deposed by 
Odoacer, a German soldier, who was hailed as king 
by his followers, and recognized as "patrician" of 
Italy by the Roman emperor at Constantinople. 

Theodoric, the East Goth, overthrew Odoacer after 
a dozen years, and established a Gothic state in Italy. 
By justice and liberality he endeavored to consolidate 
the rival elements of his kingdom, the rude Goth and 
the polished Italian. At Ravenna and Verona, where 
he chiefly resided, at Rome, whose history he revered, 
and in other cities of the peninsula, he fostered the 
arts, education, letters, and religion, encouraged trade, 
agriculture, and the handicrafts. A succession of such 
princes might have hastened the transit of civilization 
from the ancient to the modern world, but Theod- 
oric's successors were not cast in his mold, and his 
kingdom survived him barely a generation. Belisarius 
and Narses, generals of the Eastern emperors, rees- 



66 The Roman Empire 

tablished the authority of the new Rome on the Bos- 
porus over the Italian peninsula. 

The map of western Europe from 400 A. D., to 800 
A, D., was changing rapidly. One after another the 
barbarian states culminated and declined. Among 
those whose rise to power was most gradual and per- 
manent, were the Franks. From the mouths of the 
Rhine they spread over all of northern Gaul, the 
Francia ("France"), to which their name has clung. 
Before the close of the fifth century they had accepted 
Christianity, and become the mainstay of the bishop 
or pope of Rome, who as "successor of St. Peter," 
already enjoyed prestige among his fellow ecclesias- 
tics. The Frankish monarchy expanded on both sides 
of the Rhine. In 732 A. D., it was strong enough to 
stand in the breach of Christendom at Tours and stop 
forever the onrush of the Mohammedan Arabs, already 
the masters of Africa and Spain. Great was the fame 
won by their iron duke, Charles Martel, by this victory, 
and when a few years later the pope of Rome found 
his authority endangered by the growth of the Lom- 
bard kingdom in Italy, he turned to "the hammer of 
the Franks" for help. Charles' greater grandson, 
Charlemagne, crowned king of the Franks in 771 A. D., 
answered the summons. He crossed the Alps (773 
A. D.) and annexed Lombardy to his wide Frankish 
realm. Twenty-seven years later, at the height of his 
fame, Charles came again to Italy. On Christmas 
day of the year 800 A. D., before the high altar of the 
old church of St. Peter at Rome, Pope Leo III. placed 
the crown of the Caesars upon his German brow. The 
head of the Christian Church in that act allied himself 



The Breaking Up of the Empire 67 

with the most powerful prince of Christendom to re- 
establish, in so far as it might be, the world-empire of 
Rome, which, to the men of those times, was the only 
conceivable framework for that unity and peace which 
had vanished with the fall of the old regime. Charle- 
magne, the Frank, reigned for fourteen years as 
Roman emperor. All Italy save the southern prov- 
inces was his, as was all Gaul and the greater part of 
what is now Germany. His dukes and counts adminis- 
tered its local government in his name. His com- 
missioners traveled through its length and breadth. 
Like his great forerunner Theodoric, so Charles per- 
ceived that the hope of the world lay in cultivating the 
best that remained of the Old Roman civilization. He 
gathered scholars about him, patronized the monkish 
schools, and made his court a center of such learning 
and refinement as the West afforded. After his death 
and burial at Aix the ballads and romances which 
mark the beginnings of Norman and Italian literature, 
magnified his exploits and gave him superhuman form, 
intelligence, and prowess. And indeed his was no 
common work. For his career — though the succeed- 
ing age relapsed toward barbarism — had proved the 
possibility of restoring order to a troubled world; it 
had collected and conserved the remnants of the 
Roman civilization for the future enlightenment of the 
West; it had opened Germany to the influences which 
were to lead it out upon a separate national existence, 
and it had flung wide the door to the ambition of the 
popes. 

The seeds of a new Europe which had been sown 
in the four centuries of Roman decline were already 



68 The Roman Empire 

germinating. The world was indeed advancing, though 
for generations after the fall of Rome it seemed to be 
going backward. All things were unsettled by the 
Teutonic migrations. Art languished and died; let- 
ters and the love of them failed; the poets and ora- 
tors of the classic era were forgotten; architecture, 
cherished by the church, alone put forth new shoots 
of life. Even handicraftsmen lost their cunning, and 
all the operations of life were ruder than of old. 
Superstition took the place of learning among the 
clergy. Force counted for more than justice. The 
Dark Ages — ages of violence and ignorance — were 
upon the race, and thoughtful men looked back upon 
the past as to a golden day whose sun had set forever. 
But we of. to-day can see that men like Theodoric the 
Goth, and Charles the Frank, were bringing a new 
order out of the chaos, in which the virility and free- 
dom of the Teuton combininor with the Roman srenius 
for law and political organization were to produce a 
civilization grander and richer for the human race 
than the Greeks and Romans ever knew. 

SUMMARY AND QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

The unwieldy empire once more finds a master in Constan- 
tine the Great, 323 A. D. Four prefectures: The East, Illyr- 
icum, Italy, and Gaul. The dual empire: Graeco-Roman; 
Constantinople and Christianity; the Council of Nice, 325 A. D, 
Theodosius, 379-395 A. D., divides the empire. Alaric and the 
West Goths capture Rome, 410; the imperial residence at 
Ravenna. Later tribes pour into Gaul. Attila, the Hun, 
checked at Chalons, 451 A. D. The Huns advance upon Italy; 
Rome is saved by ransom. The Vandals under Genseric sack 
Rome in 455 A. D. Deposition of the last emperor, Augustulus, 



The Breaking Up of the Empire 69 

476 A. D. Theodoric, 493-526 A. U., the East Goth, at Ravenna 
and Verona founds an Italian kingdom. The generals Belisarius 
and Narses again govern under the authority of Constantinople. 
Spread of Christianity in Gaul. Charles Martel checks the 
Saracens at Tours, 732 A. D. The pope of Rome fears the 
Lombard kingdom, and appeals to Charlemagne, who is 
crowned emperor, 800 A. D. 

I. How was the unwieldy empire strengthened by Con- 
stantine? 2. Show how the empire was dual in its nature. 3. 
How had Christianity begun to be felt? 4. Describe the inva- 
sion of Alaric. 5. What tribes followed close behind him? 
6. Describe the advance of the Huns under Attila. 7. How 
did Rome suffer from the Vandals? 8. What service did 
Theodoric render to Italy? 9. What famous generals of the 
Eastern empire governed it after his death? 10. Describe 
the spread of Christianity in Gaul. 11. When was the battle 
of Tours fought, and why was it of great importance? 12. 
What events led to the crowning of Charlemagne as Roman 
emperor? 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Theodoric the Goth. Hodgkin. 

Decline a7id Fall of the Rojjiafi Euipire. Gibbon. 

Fall of the Roman Ei7ipire. Sismondi. 

Makers of Moder?i Rome. Mrs. M. O. W. Oliphant. 

Paga7i and Christian Rome. Lanciani. 

Marius, the Epicurean. Walter Pater. 



THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS 

EDITED FROM THE ITALIAN OF 
• J. C. L. DE SISMONDI 



ELIZABETH WORMELEY LATIMER 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE 

The compiler of this brief narrative of the rise and 
fortunes of the Italian republics from A. D. looo to 
A. D. 1500, wishes to say that the work done is greatly 
indebted to the admirable abridgment of Sismondi's 
History of the Italian Republics^ published by Harper 
& Brothers, who kindly permitted free use of the 
book. So much has been taken from it in scattered 
sentences as well as longer paragraphs that quotation 
marks have not been used. Acknowledgments are 
also due to Russell's Modern Europe^ W. W. Story's 
Roba di Rouia^ and an article on St. Francis d'Assisi, 
in the Revue des Deicx Mo?ides. Some manuscript 
lectures bearing on the same period have also been 
freely used. 



CHAPTER I 

CHARLEMAGNE — OTHO THE GREAT — POPE 
GREGORY VHo — HENRY IV. 

Italy was never a * 'united Italy" from the time of 
the disruption of the Roman Empire, and its invasion 
by barbaric tribes, until in our own day it became 
united, as it had long wished to be, under the rule of 
Victor Emmanuel. It is very doubtful if in heart it is 
even now a "united Italy." The inhabitants of what 
was once the kingdom of the Two Sicilies are believed 
to be as little attached to the central government as 
the peasantry in the south and west of Ireland are 
to Great Britain. Any history of Italy must, there- 
fore, be mainly a collection of fragments. To write 
it during the age of the Italian republics is very like 
endeavoring to write an early history of Scotland by 
recounting the feuds and heart-burnings of the clans. 

It seems better to interest the reader in personages 
who shaped history in their day and generation, and 
by grouping around them the events they shared and 
influenced, we may secure pictures of the manners 
and the politics of their times. 

If we take the period from about the terrible year 
A. D. looo to about 1500, when modern history begins 
with the Reformation, the revival ^f learning, and the 
discovery of the New World, these five hundred years 
form a link in European history between the Roman 

75 



76 The Italian Republics 

empire of the west, and more modern times. This 
period was formerly called the Dark Ages, and indeed, 
during one half of it there are few gleams of light that 
fall upon its history. Heretics and barbarians spoiled 
and ravaged the coasts of Italy. In Northern Italy 
wars between the Germans and the Lombards laid 
waste that most beautiful and fertile country. The 
Saracens, who had established themselves in Spain, 
and conquered the islands of the Mediterranean, com- 
mitted constant depredations on Italian coasts; the 
Greek emperor claimed jurisdiction over Venice, 
Genoa, Pisa, Ravenna, Bari, Gseta, Amalfi, and even 
Rome itself. The gallant Normans (Danes or North- 
men) who had set up their authority in what are now 
the eastern counties in England, had placed Danish 
kings upon the English throne, carved out a duchy 
for themselves in the northern part of France, planted 
a colony in Russia, and were so great a terror to the 
Christian population of every country within their 
reach, that a petition was added to the litany in the 
church service: "P'rom the fury of the Northmen, good 
Lord deliver us!" In Germany wild Magyar tribes, 
the Huns and the Avars, wasted and despoiled as far 
as Belgium. The seas were infested by pirates, and 
life in those days must have been full of distress and 
terror. Then, too, the relations of the church to those 
within its fold were unsettled, and the great dispute 
between the successors of Charlemagne and the popes, 
destined to be carried on for three centuries, and to 
divide Italy into Guelphs and Ghibellines, was ap- 
proaching a crisis. 

We call this the Age of Chivalry, and are delighted 



Charlemagne — Henry IV 77 

to read about it in romances. "It was," says a writer 
in Blackwood^ reviewing Mr. Gladstone's Juventus 
Miindi^ "a world which certainly stands out in strong 
contrast to our modern age, when damsels in distress 
apply at once to their lawyers, and the only real con- 
tests between knights and gentlemen are carried on 
by a good deal of tall talk in the House of Commons. 
But in order to have enjoyed life in the Age of Chiv- 
alry we must all have been either beautiful ladies or 
tall knights — six feet high and stout in proportion. 
It would have been an uncomfortable world for some 
of us dyspeptic moderns, whose stock of animal spirits 
is limited and irregular; and there was a 'fat knight,' 
whom we seem to remember in some of those circum- 
stantial narratives, who was always coming to grief 
quite undeservedly." 

We have said that the year 1000 was "a terrible" 
year. It was that in which the majority of people in 
the Christian world expected the Day of Judgment. 
Fields were left untilled, all private enterprises were 
abandoned. The panic was worst in France, but it 
spread into Germany and Italy. 

When Charlemagne espoused the cause of the pope 
in his quarrel with the Lombard monarchy, he com- 
prehended the beauty of a civilization which his prede- 
cessors had witnessed only to destroy. He made it 
his duty and his glory to govern the country he had 
conquered, and to promote the common good. He 
did more. In concert with Pope Leo III. he made 
out of his Italian conquests a western Roman Empire, 
which he considered the representative of order and 
justice in contrast to barbaric force, and on Christ- 



78 The Italian Republics 

mas day, in the year 800, he received from Pope Leo, 
with the full approbation of the Roman people, the 
title of Roman emperor and the name of Charlemagne, 
or Charles the Great, which no prince before him had 
so well deserved. He governed Italy and all his other 
states for forty years, establishing the reign of law, 
and promoting civilization; but barbarism was too 
strong for him, and when he died, in 814, it was re- 
established throughout his late dominions. For seventy 
years after his death, sovereigns, either Italian or 
Burgundian, who were all allied to the race of the 
Franks, disputed the crown of Italy and the empire. 

Otho the Great, while only king of Germany (for he 
had not received the golden crown at Rome) forced 
Berenger, the last king of Lombardy, to be his vassal. 
They were also rivals in love, for Berenger having 
seized and imprisoned the beautiful Adelheid, widow 
of Lothaire, Otho's predecessor, desired to marry her 
to his son. But Adelheid, making her escape, placed 
herself under the protection of the Count of Tuscany 
at Canossa. The count appealed on her behalf to 
King Otho, who espoused her cause, marched into 
Italy, married her himself, and in 961 was crowned in 
Rome with the title of emperor. He then banished 
Berenger to Hamburg, where he died in captivity. 

"When Otho conquered Northern Italy, he established 
the feudal system, which was an institution hereditary 
among his northern people. The soil of Lombardy 
was soon covered with feudal castles, and its cities 
began to rebuild their ruined walls. Then the power 
of the towns rapidly increased. They had retained 
their old municipal institutions; people from all parts 



Charlemagne — Henry IV 79 

of the country sought refuge in them from oppression. 
Such exiles everywhere were sure of a good reception, 
for each city, feeling that it had strength only in pro- 
portion to the number of its citizens, vied with its 
neighbors in its efforts to augment its means of de- 
fense, and in the cordiality with which it received 
strangers. 

The barons in their castles found it greatly to their 
advantage to afford protection to their rural neigh- 
bors, and to cultivate friendly relations with them. 
The result was that the rural population in Lombardy 
rapidly increased, and the country for a few years 
enjoyed peace and prosperity. The cities enclosed 
themselves with walls, and the bishops declared them- 
selves independent of all feudal masters, except the 
emperor. The latter made common cause with the 
ecclesiastics and the citizens. The emperors, like 
other rulers of the period, were anxious to break the 
power of their great vassals. Many scandals had 
arisen in Rome during the later years of the tenth 
century. Popes who had been elected by bribery, 
or through the favoritism of women, were found wholly 
unfit for their high office. Otho the Great, in conse- 
quence of these scandals, had deprived the Roman 
people of their power to create popes. Rome, in 
reprisal, tried to throw off her allegiance to the em- 
pire, and asserted her right to become an independent 
commonwealth. It was at this time that Cresentius 
was made consul in Rome. He was of discreditable 
parentage, his mother, a patrician lady, having been 
the mistress of one of the popes. Cresentius was the 
idol of the Roman people until Henry III. entered 



8o The Italian Republics 

Rome in 1046 and found three popes disputing the 
right to be chief pontiff. He deposed all of them, 
appointed German prelates in their stead, and exe- 
cuted Cresentius, who lives in our memory chiefly 
because his fate was the subject of a touching ballad 
by Mrs. Hemans. 

Henry IV. succeeded his father as emperor of Ger- 
many in 1056. During his long minority, opposition 
was preparing for him in the person of Hildebrand, 
the greatest personage of the eleventh century. Hil- 
debrand was a native of Tuscany, and a man of obscure 
origin. In those days there was no opening for a man 
of commanding talent and plebeian birth but through 
the doors of the church, where promotion was open 
to all men, whether of high or low degree. Hilde- 
brand at first entered a convent, but was sent by his 
superiors to Cluny in France, a convent of the Bene- 
dictines. There, heartsick at the abuses of the church, 
he dreamed of a complete reformation, not of doctrine, 
but of the ecclesiastical system. He thought that God 
being the supreme ruler of all men. His kingdom should 
be established upon earth, that His vicar or lieutenant 
was the Roman pontiff, and therefore that all men 
should be subject to his will. The whole church sys- 
tem having become corrupt, Hildebrand planned earn- 
estly the reformation of its head, its ministers, and 
the whole body of Christian people. He cursed all 
intervention of the secular power in the distribution 
of church dignities. He called such intervention 
simony. He even included in his anathema investi- 
ture of ecclesiastics by temporal princes in temporal 
dignities. In 1059 he obtained from the Council of the 



Charlemagne — Henry IV 8i 

Lateral! a decree that the election of the popes should 
thenceforth be vested in the cardinals, or rather in prel- 
ates who were rectors of some church within the 
walls of Rome, for which reason all cardinals are even 
now appointed to some such parochial dignity. All 
prelates were to be nominated by the chapters of their 
cathedrals, and the nomination was to be confirmed 
by the pope. He also insisted on the celibacy of the 
clergy, that they might be detached from all the influ- 
ences of human society. Previously, especially in 
Lombardy, the rule of celibacy had not been enforced. 
Finally he proclaimed that the pope, when properly 
appointed, was a being infallible — a god upon earth, 
who as the representative of the Deity could depose at 
will rebellious princes, by releasing their subjects from 
their oaths of fidelity, 

A great part of this dream he actually accomplished ; 
he put a new spirit into the popedom^, the clergy, and 
the people. He enslaved kings. By his influence he 
procured the election of four popes, who he expected 
would carry out his views, but at length, in 1073, he 
allowed himself to be elected and took the name of 
Gregory VII. It was the first time a pope had adopted 
a new name. 

Then began his great struggle with the emperor, 
Henry IV., a struggle known in history as the War of 
Investitures. Henry IV. began hostilities by invok- 
ing a diet at Worms and deposing and excommuni- 
cating Pope Gregory, who responded by deposing 
and excommunicating the emperor. Then began a 
war between the papacy on the one hand and the 
whole power of the empire on the other. The strug- 



82 The Italian Republics 

gle lasted with an occasional interval for about fifty 
years. 

In this combat Pope Gregory received great aid 
and comfort from Matilda, countess of Tuscany. She 
was an heiress, whose fiefs stretched from Mantua over 
the eastern plains of Lombardy, crossed the Apen- 
nines, and included Tuscany with part of the duchy of 
Spoleto. Her residence, as that of other rulers of 
Tuscany, had been ever in the strong mountain castle 
of Canossa. 

Henry was a man of tender conscience. His con- 
test with one who claimed to be God's vicar upon 
earth, greatly distressed him. More than once he 
made submission to the pope, but never thereby gained 
any remission of Hildebrand's arrogant pretensions. 
At one time he resolved to abdicate and become a 
monk, and actually took the vows, when the abbot of 
the convent he proposed to enter, after reminding him 
that he had pledged himself to obey every command 
laid on him by his superiors, ordered him to resume 
his scepter, and fulfil his duties as an emperor. 

The German bishops, terrified by the thunders of 
the church, deserted the party of their sovereign, and 
at last were willing to give up their emperor to be 
tried by the pope, whom they requested to come to 
Augsburg for that purpose. 

This completed Henry's discomfiture. He took 
the extraordinary resolution of suddenly passing the 
Tyrolean Alps, and presenting himself before Gregory, 
to implore pardon and absolution. The pope was in 
the fortress of Canossa in company with his friend the 
Countess Matilda. At the gates of this stronghold 



Charlemagne — Henry IV 83 

the emperor presented himself as a humble penitent. 
He was parted from his few attendants and admitted 
alone into the courtyard. It was the month of Janu- 
ary, 1077, and in the mountains the weather was, of 
course, bitterly cold. In the courtyard of the castle 
he was required to remain three days, stripped of his 
robes, wrapped in sackcloth, barefooted, in the snow, 
and fasting, until it was the pleasure of the pontiff to 
admit him to his presence. 

But this treatment exasperated not only Henry 
himself, but his nobles, and their indignation was in- 
creased when they found that the pope had incited the 
two sons of their emperor to rebel. 

Gregory did his best to raise all Germany against 
the emperor, but the nobles and people of Lombardy 
took Henry's part w^hile the Germans proceeded 
to choose another emperor, and solemnly crowned 
Rodolph, duke of Swabia, at Aix-la-Chapelle. But in 
a battle with Henry's forces, Godfrey de BouUion, the 
future hero at Jerusalem, cut off the hand of Rodolph 
by one sweep of his sword blade. No medical assist- 
ance was to be had promptly, and the unfortunate 
Rodolph, bleeding to death, demanded that his severed 
hand should be brought to him, when he addressed it, 
saying that it deserved its fate, for it had taken the 
oath of allegiance to Henry, which he, its master, had 
violated perfidiously, aspiring to an honor that was 
not his due. 

The defeat of Rodolph must have been a great 
blow to Gregory, who had issued a prophetic anathema 
against Henry, depriving him by his authority as God's 
representative on earth, of strength in combat; con- 



84 The Italian Republics 

derailing him nevej^ to be victorious j and winding up by 
appealing to St. Peter and St. Paul to make their 
power felt by all kings and princes, that they might 
not dare to oppose the orders of the church. It also 
implored them that justice might be so speedily exe- 
cuted upon Henry, that no man might doubt he fell a 
victim to apostolic wrath and not by chance. 

When the Countess Matilda died she left all her 
dominions, as she had promised Pope Gregory, to the 
reigning pope and his successors. A large part of her 
lands became what has been since known as the States 
of the Church, which though always a hotbed of 
revolutionary fervor, were never alienated from the 
papacy until Victor Emmanuel became ruler of Italy. 
Dante, in his Pm^gatorio^ speaks much of this lady, 
whom he makes the representative of those who do 
much for the church in contrast with contemplative 
women. Longfellow, in his notes on Dante, quoting 
from Napier's History of Florence^ says: "Whatever 
may be thought of her chivalrous support, her bold 
defense, and her deep devotion to the church, it was 
in perfect harmony with the spirit of that age. Her 
unflinching adherence to the cause she conscientiously 
embraced was far more noble than the conduct of 
Emperor Henry, who, swinging between the extremes 
of unmeasured insolence and abject humiliation, died 
a victim to papal influence over superstitious minds." 

Another great gift fell to the papacy, when the 
pope was offered by the Norman adventurer, Robert 
Guiscard, suzerainty over his conquests in Southern 
Italy. When the Greek emperors ceded Lombardy to 
the Lombard kings, they retained some cities on the 



Charlemagne — Henry IV 85 

coast of the Adriatic and some upon the Mediter- 
ranean, Among the former was Venice, which paid 
tribute annually to the Greek emperor by sending him 
a robe of cloth of gold ; others were Ravenna and Bari. 
The southern coasts of Northern and Central Italy were 
dotted by Greek colonies, each clustered around some 
city governed by a nearly independent chief who owed 
nominal allegiance to the emperor at Constantinople. 
Early in the eleventh century some Norman knights 
on a pilgrimage to an Italian shrine, chanced to en- 
counter a Greek exile from the town of Bari. Moved 
by his promises and the story of his wrongs, they 
returned to Normandy and there collected a small 
force for the deliverance of Apulia from its oppressors. 
These Normans did not come in their long ships, but 
crossed the Alps as pilgrims, and presented themselves 
as knights when they reached Apulia. But they were 
so few in number that they failed in their expedition 
against Bari, and became a band of free lances, wan- 
dering among the mountains and valleys of Southern 
Italy. Their discipline and prowess were speedily 
recognized, and their assistance was sought in every 
domestic quarrel. They soon attracted to themselves 
other Norman adventurers, among them the sons of 
Tancred de Hauteville, grandfather of the crusading 
hero of Tasso's Gerusalemme. These young men, on 
arriving in Southern Italy, joined some Greeks who 
were attacking some Saracens in the country. Pope 
Leo IX., one of the predecessors of Gregory VII., 
becoming alarmed at the vicinity of such formidable 
and restless neighbors, made an alliance with the Ger- 
man and Greek emperors to subdue them. Three 



86 The Italian Republics 

thousand Xormans. under two of Tancred's sons, 
utterly routed the force brought against them. The 
pope, driven from the field, was pursued by the Xor- 
mans, and when .overtaken, was to his surprise sur- 
rounded by his late foes who implored his benediction. 
Peace was made and friendship established between 
the head of the church and the Xormans of Southern 
Italy. 

The most brilliant of the family was Robert, known 
in history as Robert Guiscard. He remained a stanch 
friend of the papacy, and in return for many favors 
from Xicholas II. and Pope Gregory, proposed, for 
greater security of title, to hold his conquests under 
the nominal suzerainty of the Holy See. 

In 1081, Henry IV., having subdued his enemies 
in Germany, set out for Italy in order to settle his 
appointee, Clement III., upon the papal throne. The 
gates of Rome were closed against him, and he be- 
sieged the city for two years. When at last it sur- 
rendered he found that Gregory had taken refuge in 
the castle of St. Angelo, whence he defied and again 
excommunicated his conqueror. Henry, however, was 
crowned emperor by a new pope with the consent and 
concurrence of the Roman senate and people. Then 
he proceeded to take the castle of St. Angelo, and to 
make Gregory his prisoner, but when he was recalled 
to Lombardy, Robert Guiscard took advantage of his 
absence to release Gregory and carry him to Salerno, 
where he died not long after, A. D. 10S5. His last 
words were: ''I have loved righteousness and hated 
iniquity; therefore I die in exile." 

It only remains in this chapter to tell the fate of 



Charlemagne — Henry IV 87 

Henry. The death of his great adversary brought 
him no peace. New troubles and fresh rivalries dis- 
tracted Germany, but everything yielded to the em- 
peror's valor. 

In Italy, however, enemies were embroiling his 
affairs. Popes and anti-popes were elected, and Urban 
II. stirred up Henry's son Conrad to rebel. The 
death of Conrad did not relieve the situation, for Pope 
Pascal I. induced young Henry to make war upon his 
father. Through treachery the emperor fell into the 
hands of his son. A diet was called, presided over 
by the pope's legate, who again pronounced sentence 
of excommunication against the captured emperor. 
Two archbishops were sent to him to inform him of 
his deposition and to demand that he should give up 
the regalia to his son. After some remonstrance on 
his part, and much insolence on that of the deputation, 
the unhappy emperor retired, but soon reappeared 
wearing his royal robes and ornaments. Then, seating 
himself on his chair of state, he addressed the arch- 
bishops thus: "Behold the marks of that royalty with 
which I was invested by God and the princes of the 
empire. If you disregard the wrath of heaven and the 
eternal reproaches of mankind, so much as to lay vio- 
lent hands upon your sovereign, you may strip me of 
them. I am not in a condition to defend myself." 

They took him at his word; they seized his golden 
crown, tore off his royal robes, and dragged him from 
his chair of state. As they did so, Henry, with tears 
dropping fast down his cheeks, exclaimed: "Great 
God! Thou art a God of vengeance; Thou wilt repay 
this outrage! I have sinned, I own, and have merited 



88 The Italian Republics 

shame by the follies of my youth, but Thou wilt not 
fail to punish these traitors for their insolence, ingrati- 
tude, and perjury!" 

He was so ill provided for by the barbarity of his 
son, that, having been already admitted into holy 
orders, he attempted to procure a canonry in the 
Cathedral of Spire, imploring, as it was prophesied 
concerning the descendants of the wicked sons of Eli: 
"Put me, I pray thee, into one of the priest's offices 
that I may eat a piece of bread." 

He escaped from confinement, however, and reached 
Cologne, where he was once more recognized as the 
lawful emperor. He was raising an army and was 
opening negotiations with the pope, when he died at 
Liege, A. D. 1106, in the fifty-sixth year of his age 
and forty-ninth of his reign. 

SUMMARY AND QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

Charlemagne, Roman emperor, 800-814. Otho the Great, 
crowned 961; estabHshes feudal system. Walled cities; feudal 
barons; increase of rural population in Lombardy. Age of 
Chivalry; the " terrible year," 1000 A. D. Corruption of the 
church; Hildebrand (Gregory VII., 1073-85); Matilda of Tus- 
cany; Henry IV. and War of Investitures. Gifts to the papacy: 
Matilda's Tuscan estates and Robert Guiscard's Norman pos- 
sessions in Southern Italy. 

I. Why does the history of Italy present peculiar difficulties 
to the historian? 2. How was Northern Italy despoiled during 
the period of the Dark Ages? 3. How did the country suffer 
from the Saracens? 4. What cities were claimed by the Greek 
emperor? 5. In what parts of Europe were the Normans 
powerful at this time? 6. How did the condition of the church 
add to the anarchy of this time? 7. What sharp contrasts does 
the "Age of Chivalry" present? 8. Why was the year 1000 



Charlemagne — Henry IV 89 

called the "terrible " year? 9. How was Charlemagne's influ- 
ence felt in Italy? 10. How did Otho the Great establish his 
power in Italy? 11. What followed the establishment of feudal 
castles in Lombardy? 12, How did the emperors seek to cur- 
tail the power of their vassals? 13. How did Rome try to 
become an independent commonwealth? 14. Who was Hilde- 
brand? 15. What reforms in the church did he accomplish? 
16. Who was Matilda of Tuscany, and in what way did she 
serve the church? 17. Describe the struggle between Gregory 
VII. and Henry IV. 18. What temporal possessions came to 
the church at this time? 19. What circumstances led to papal 
control of Southern Italy? 20. Under what circumstances did 
Gregory VII. close his life? 21. Describe the last years of 
Henry IV. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

History of the Italiatt Republics. Sismondi. 

The Middle Ages. Hallam. 

The Holy Ro?fian Empire. Bryce. 

The City of Rome. Dyer. 

Charlemagne. Hodgkin. 



CHAPTER II 

FREE CITIES — THE CONQUEST OF SICILY — 
FREDERICK BARBAROSSA 

During the distracted years of storm and stress 
which marked the course of the turbulent eleventh 
century, the free cities of Italy were steadily growing 
in wealth, in importance, and in a spirit that desired 
self-government. It may be remarked that they had 
no patriotic feeling for Italy as their fatherland. 
Their patriotism, though intense, was limited to their 
own city. Their aim was municipal autonomy. But 
the mass of the people did not expect to be represented 
in the government. The "parliaments" which met in 
the open air were assemblies of burghers, summoned 
by authority, and to them the word popolo was applied, 
to the exclusion of the more numerous population of 
the city — men of foreign or barbarian race, who were 
expected only to obey. Each city elected chief offi- 
cers, and called them consuls, but at first they had no 
jurisdiction, they were only law officers, whose duty 
was to plead the cause of the inhabitants of the city 
in any cases that might be brought before the bish- 
op's court, or that of his representative. But after 
a century of struggle the burghers became independent 
of lordship with a fully organized government, self- 
guarded in its several assemblies. 

The maritime cities, Genoa, Pisa, and Venice (the 
90 



Free Cities — Frederick Barbarossa 91 

latter still nominally owed fealty to the Greek em- 
peror) were in advance of the inland towns and were 
rapidly acquiring independent autonomy. 

Having rebuilt their walls, the first object of the 
citizens was to have a force to defend them. The 
larger cities, as has been said, welcomed exiles and 
strangers, and before long they attempted to form 
leagues and confederacies. Every city soon had a 
military force. When it went to war — and it was sel- 
dom at peace — its soldiers rallied round the carroccio^ 
a float drawn by oxen, dressed with flags, and accom- 
panied by trumpeters. In its center was a high pole 
bearing the standard of the city, beneath which stood 
an altar on which a priest elevated the host and said 
mass daily. The carroccio formed a rallying point 
in battle, reminding the armed artisans that they had 
a city and a church to fight for; and so great was the 
enthusiasm they felt for that city, that we never hear 
of an instance of panic or defection. 

Haribert, archbishop of Milan in 1024, invented 
the carroccio, which being speedily adopted by other 
cities, played an important part in their continual war- 
fare; animating the soldiers who followed it, and con- 
solidating them into a formidable band of warriors, 
very different in spirit from the semi-barbarian Ger- 
mans and bands of mercenaries who made up the 
armies brought by the emperors into Italy. 

Besides the carroccio, Milan owed to Haribert the 
idea of the commune. It was he who organized the 
voiceless, defenseless population into a community 
capable of expressing its needs, and an army ready to 
maintain the rights of the people. He was himself 



92 The Italian Republics 

the supreme ruler of Milan, but under him the citizens 
first formed themselves into a parliamento^ and the 
word popolo was applied to the governing or burgher 
class. 

Each city governed itself and had a little tract of 
country over which it held sway. But the cities, when 
they felt their strength, wanted to be stronger. The 
larger ones, like Milan, Pavia, or Pisa, wanted to force 
all neighboring villages and lesser cities to join in a 
confederation, and when these objected, they were not 
infrequently attacked and razed to the ground. 

Milan became the chief city of Lombardy, and was 
devoted to the church; Pavia was devoted to the em- 
peror. In other words, Milan was Guelph and Pavia 
was Ghibelline. These words came into use in Italy 
shortly after the death of Henry IV., when a war broke 
out in Germany between two rival candidates for the 
imperial throne. One party (that of a Bavarian prince) 
took his name, Welf or Guelph, the other, in compli- 
ment to its leader, a duke of Swabia, who was born at 
Waiblingen, took the name of Ghibellines. The 
reader, unfamiliar with history, finds it somewhat un- 
reasonable that the adherents of the pope should be 
called Guelphs, and those of the German emperor 
GhibellineSo But it was so, and we do well not to 
forget it. 

Before we take up the history of Henry, the un- 
natural son of Henry IV., we may pause to say a few 
words about the Norman race, who ruled in the Two 
Sicilies. 

Robert Guiscard, under especial protection of the 
popes, pursued his triumphs in Southern Italy. The 



Free Cities — Frederick Barbarossa 93 

Italian conquests of Robert accord with what was 
called, subsequently, the kingdom of Naples. Pope 
Nicholas II. invested him with all the lands his sword 
might conquer "from schismatic Greeks or unbeliev- 
ing Saracens." The enterprising little republic of 
Amalfi, and Salerno, the chief seat of learning in 
Christendom, acknowledged Norman Robert as their 
nominal protector. He was at the height of his power 
when Roger, his youngest brother, arrived from Nor- 
mandy. Roger had set his heart on conquering Sicily 
from the Greeks and Saracens. He invaded it with 
only sixty followers, but Robert came over to his help, 
when assured that the enterprise would be successfuL 
When that was certain, the pope put forth a bull not 
only investing Roger and his heirs with temporal 
sovereignty over Sicily, but making them in that island 
hereditary legates of the Holy See. 

Robert Guiscard was not succeeded by Bohemund, 
his eldest son (whose mother he had divorced), but by 
a younger son, named Roger, on whose death the 
great Roger, conqueror of Sicily, became heir to the 
kingdom of Naples and was father of a long line ot 
kings of the Two Sicilies. That model of all 
knighthood, Tancred the Crusader, was nephew to 
Robert Guiscard on the mother's side, and grandson 
of Tancred de Hauteville, the founder of his family. 

Henry V. the unnatural son, whose cause Pope 
Pascal had espoused, turned against the priests after 
he had received the golden crown. For sixteen years 
he made war against the church to maintain the rights 
of secular sovereigns. 

The war of the investitures, which lasted sixty 



94 The Italian Republics 

years, brought with it a long train of woes and ruin, 
but it made the people of Italy more patriotic, so far 
as each man's love for his own city was concerned; it 
taught men how to fight, and it trained them to self- 
government. It also broke up the feudal system. 
Nobles were compelled to leave their castles part of 
the year to become burghers, and to reside in their 
own cities. They also formed the cavalry in the army 
of citizens. 

The inhabitants of Pisa and Genoa, hardy mariners 
accustomed to fight pirates and Saracens in their pur- 
suit of commerce, attacked the Mohammedans in Sar- 
dinia and the Balearic Isles. Venice, Pisa, and Genoa 
had more vessels on the Mediterranean than all 
Christendom besides. They seconded the crusaders 
with enthusiasm. The A'enetians assert that in 1099 
they sent two hundred vessels to aid the First Crusade. 
The Pisans sent out their archbishop, with an escort 
of one hundred and twenty vessels; the Genoese could 
send only twenty-eight galleys and six other vessels, 
but all were animated with the crusading spirit. 

In A. D. mi, Henry V. entered Italy with a large 
army, but failing in his attempt to intimidate Pope 
Pascal II., he proceeded to make him prisoner. After 
defeating the Romans in a battle outside their walls, 
where the waters of the Tiber ran blood in conse- 
quence of the carnage, he brought the pope to terms, 
and received the golden crown. But the solemn 
reconciliation of the church to the empire did not 
last, the war was renewed, the emperor entered Rome 
in triumph, and the pope sought refuge in Apulia. 
At length the princes and people of Germany, weary 



Free Cities — Frederick Barbarossa 95 

of such strife, besought Henry to offer terms of peace. 
A diet was held at Worms in 1122, which put an end 
to the dispute concerning investiture. Henry gave 
up his pretensions to invest bishops by the ring and 
crozier (symbols of ecclesiastical authority), and the 
pope conceded him the right to invest them as tem- 
poral princes, by giving them the scepter. 

Henry died at Utrecht two years later. He had 
married Matilda, daughter of Henry II., of England, 
but it was a childless marriage. A contest rose in 
Germany for the imperial succession. On the death 
of Conrad III., the crown was offered to Frederick 
Barbarossa, duke of Swabia, A. D. 1152. He was 
connected with both the rival factions in Germany, 
the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, and his elevation 
gave general satisfaction. There have been two Bar- 
barossas (or Red Beards) in the history of modern 
Europe, one the emperor, the other a celebrated pirate 
in the fifteenth century. 

When Frederick Barbarossa had somewhat composed 
the disturbances in Germany, he marched into Italy, 
determined to punish the free city of Milan, which 
had boldly asserted its independence. He marched 
his army, with no base of supplies, expecting food, 
forage, and lodging for his troops according to dues 
owed by his vassals to their feudal lord. Milan agreed 
to furnish these things, but the march of the Ger- 
mans through Milanese territory being delayed by 
heavy rains, they found themselves one night without 
rations; and the soldiers avenged themselves on the 
rural inhabitants by pillaging and burning their vil- 
lages. 



96 The Italian Republics 

Postponing the punishment of Milan for a time, 
Frederick marched to Rome. The pope at that day 
was Adrian IV. — Nicholas Breakspear, the only Eng- 
lishman ever promoted to the papal chair. He was of 
peasant birth, and had been a mendicant for some 
years, when a convent received him, educated him, and 
his great talents and strength of character did the 
rest. He had been much annoyed by the preaching 
of a young monk, a pupil of Abelard, called Arnold of 
Brescia, whose addresses had stirred the people of 
Rome into sympathy with Milan, and a desire to make 
Rome also a free city. Frederick and his army, when 
they reached Rome, did not enter the gates of the 
city. They encamped beyond the Tiber in what is 
called the Leonine City, a suburb which surrounds the 
Vatican. There Frederick was crowned by the pope, 
while his soldiers were fighting the Roman populace, 
who crowded over the bridge of San Angelo to disturb 
the ceremony. This consisted not only of bestowing 
the crown, but Pope Adrian insisted that in the char- 
acter of his vassal the emperor should kiss his feet, 
hold his stirrup, and lead his horse. Frederick had 
great difficulty in bringing himself to accept these 
terms, but when all was over, being anxious to pro- 
pitiate the pontiff, he gave up to him Arnold of Bres- 
cia, who had fallen into his hands. Arnold was tried 
for heresy — not what is usually known by that name, 
but for "political heresy." He was hanged, and his 
body was burned opposite the gate of the castle of 
St. Angelo. 

After this Frederick marched back to Lombardy. 
His troops had suffered much from sickness and fa- 



Free Cities — Frederick Barbarossa 97 

tigue, and many had deserted him. The attack upon 
Milan was postponed, but the city was put under the 
ban of the empire, and all the lands of the surround- 
ing territory laid waste. His soldiers mowed down 
the corn, destroyed all prospect of a harvest, cut down 
the vine-stocks, and barked the fruit trees. The 
Milanese saw clearly that they must perish, but if they 
did it would be for the honor and liberty of Italy. 
They were resolved to leave a good example to their 
countrymen, and to future generations. 

For six months Crema, a small city in Milanese 
territory, otherwise little known to history, defended 
itself with extraordinary bravery. At length famine 
forced it to capitulate, and the heroic inhabitants 
evacuated their city, abandoning their wealth to pil- 
lage and their houses to the flames. 

But this kind of tedious warfare wore out the pa- 
tience of the German soldiers, who claimed that they 
had completed their terms of feudal service, and the 
army of Frederick melted away. The emperor, how- 
ever, determined to remain in Italy and trust to the 
fidelity of his Ghibelline soldiers until a new army 
should arrive from Germany to his aid. In the sum- 
mer of 1 161 these fresh troops joined him, the new 
recruits being far more ferocious than their more ex- 
perienced predecessors. It was three years since 
Milan had been placed under the ban of the empire, 
and its heroic inhabitants who had been under arms 
all that time were at length forced by an accidental 
hre, which destroyed their magazines of grain, to sur- 
render at discretior. Frederick was not cruel, accord- 
ing to the standard of cruelty in his time. He spared 



98 The Italian Republics 

their lives, but required tliat every living being should 
quit the city; then he summoned all the Ghibelline 
soldiers from the neighboring cities and gave them 
orders to raze to the earth the houses as well as the 
walls of the town. The more wealthy inhabitants 
sought hospitality in neighboring cities, where their 
sufferings, their sacrifices, and their valor made prose- 
lytes to the cause of liberty. That cause, too, was 
strengthened by general indignation at the system of 
government established by the emperor. The foreign 
podestas, whom he made rulers in every city, excited 
widespread hostility by their injustice and exactions. 
Taxes were augmented sixfold. The Italians, whether 
Guelph or Ghibelline, were reduced to a state of suf- 
fering and humiliation. 

A new pope had to be elected in 1 159 ; the church's 
candidate was Alexander III., the people's candidate 
Victor III. The emperor favored Victor. Almost all 
Christendom, however, declared for Alexander. A 
new city was built in Lombardy and called Alexan- 
dria, while the emperor desired it should bear the 
name of Caesaria in his honor. 

In 1 1 63 Frederick came back to Italy, accompanied 
not by an army, but by a brilliant train of German 
nobles. He took up his residence at Lodi, where he 
assembled a diet, and promised the Lombards to 
redress their grievances. He wanted to separate their 
cause from that of the pope and his ally, the Norman 
king in Southern Italy. 

In July, 1 167, Frederick again marched on Rome. 
Meantime, Italian feeling brought about a union of 
the Guelphs and Ghibellines. They formed a con- 



Free Cities — Frederick Barbarossa 99 

federation, which was called the League of Lombardy. 
The consuls of the cities took an oath, and the citi- 
zens afterward repeated it, that every Lombard should 
unite for the recovery of their common liberty, that 
the league should be in force for twenty years, and 
that the cities entering into it should aid each other 
in repairing any damage sustained in the cause of lib- 
erty. In consequence of this the cities of the league 
prepared to rebuild Milan. Bergamo, Brescia, Cremona, 
Mantua, Verona, and Treviso sent their contingents. 

After the rebuilding of Milan, Venice, Placentia, 
Parma, and Modena voluntarily joined the League of 
Lombardy. 

For some years after his expedition to Rome, which 
proved unsuccessful, Frederick himself did not reenter 
Italy, but he sent a certain archbishop named Christian, 
arch-chancellor of the empire, as his representative. 
The first effort of this ecclesiastic was to establish 
peace between Pisa and Genoa, rivals for the com- 
merce of the East. The Pisans being unwilling to 
adopt his views, he threw their consuls into a dun- 
geon, and did the same with the consuls of Florence, 
promising the nobles of other towns in Tuscany, Ro- 
magna, and Umbria to revenge them on their enemies 
if they would first cooperate in crushing the enemies 
of the emperor. By this he meant assisting him in the 
subjugation of Ancona. For ages the citizens of that 
beautiful town, favored by their situation, had repulsed 
the attacks of the barbarians, and maintained their 
independence. 

The archbishop, with an army of Ghibellines, laid 
siege to it, and hunger proved his ally. But great as 

L..fC. 



lOO The Italian Republics 

was the distress of the inhabitants of Ancona, they 
disdained to capitulate. The Guelphs of Ferrara and 
the Romagna sent them assistance, and the archbishop, 
seeing their succors about to arrive, gave up the siege 
and retreated. 

After an absence of seven years Frederick, with an 
army, again entered Italy. The new city of Alexan- 
dria, called after the pope, but which the Germans, in 
derision, called a city of straw walls, was so gallantly 
defended by its citizens that it held out four months 
against the power of the emperor, and on Easter day, 
1 1 75, Frederick, with his troops, discouraged and ex- 
hausted, marched back to Pavia. 

This last check disheartened the emperor. He was 
ready to negotiate. His enemies all expressed an 
ardent desire to reconcile the prerogatives of the em- 
peror and the rights of the Roman Church, with those 
of liberty. But the pretensions of Frederick could not 
be reconciled with more of the cities, which demanded 
independence. The negotiations were broken off, and 
in the spring of 1176 war was resumed. Frederick, 
indignant at the recovered prestige and power of 
Milan, marched into Milanese territory; there he en- 
countered the Milanese army fifteen miles from Milan. 
An impetuous charge of the German cavalry made the 
Lombards give away, but in their army there was a 
company of nine hundred young men from Milan, who 
had devoted themselves to the defense of their city, 
and called themselves the Company of Death. Seeing 
that the carroccio was in danger, they all knelt down 
for a moment, invoking the protection of God and the 
patron saint of their city, then, rising, they advanced 



Free Cities — Frederick Barbarossa loi 

with such impetuosity that the Germans were pressed 
back. Their whole army was put to flight, and the 
emperor and his knights were compelled to seek safety 
by hiding. For some days Frederick was reported 
dead, and he reached Pavia to find his wife mourning 
for him. 

This defeat at Lugano determined Frederick seri- 
ously to seek for peace. Negotiations were opened at 
Venice, and finally signed at Constance, June 25, 1183. 
The negotiations bore upon three different points: i, 
the reconciliation of the emperor with the church, thus 
closing the schism; 2, peace between the emperor of 
the East, the emperor of the West, and the king of 
the Two Sicilies; 3, reconciliation of the cities that 
joined the League of Lombardy with those that had 
refused to join it. 

By this treaty of Constance the emperor acknowl- 
edged the right of the confederated cities to levy 
armies, to enclose themselves with walls, and within 
their own limits to exercise civil and criminal juris- 
diction Consuls acquired the same power as if they 
had been the emperor's lieutenants, and the cities of 
Lombardy were further authorized to extend their 
confederation. They in return agreed to maintain the 
just rights of the emperor, defined by the treaty, but 
to avoid disputes it was stipulated that these rights 
might at any time be bought off by an annual payment 
of two thousand marks of silver. 

"Thus terminated," says Sismondi, "in the estab- 
lishment of a legal liberty the first and most noble 
struggle which the nations of modern Europe have 
ever maintained against despotism." 



I02 The Italian Republics 

SUMMARY AND QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

Free cities; Milan, Archbishop Haribert, the carroccio and 
the commune. Protection or oppression of smaller communi- 
ties by the larger cities. Milan allied to the church; Pavia to 
the emperor; Guelphs and Ghibellines. The kingdom of the 
Two Sicilies ; Roger the Conqueror, Tancred the Crusader. 
Pisa and Genoa attack the Mohammedans in Sardinia and in 
the Balearic Isles. Venice sends 200 vessels on the First Cru- 
sade in logg. Henry V. and diet at Worms, 1122. The em- 
peror retains temporal sovereignty, the pope ecclesiastical 
authority. Effects of the long War of Investitures, feudal 
system broken up, cities trained in self-government. Frederick 
Barbarossa, 11 52, Pope Adrian IV. (Nicholas Breakspear), and 
Arnold of Brescia. Frederick's long struggle with the Guelph 
cities. The League of Lombardy. The Peace of Constance, 
1 183; rights of the cities secured. 

I. What was the nature of Italian patriotism in the eleventh 
century? 2. What kind of self-government did the free cities 
enjoy? 3. Of what importance was the car?'occio? 4. What 
did Milan owe to Archbishop Haribert? 5. What was the 
attitude of the strong cities toward their weak neighbors? 6. 
How did the terms Guelph and Ghibelline arise? 7. Describe 
the conquest of Sicily. 8= How did the wars between pope 
and emperor affect the people of Northern Italy? 9. What 
part did Italy play in the crusades? 10= How was the quarrel 
over investitures finally settled? 11. Who was Frederick 
Barbarossa? 12. Describe the events attending his coronation 
at Rome. 13. What was the siege of Crema? 14. Describe 
the overthrow of Milan. 15. What Wd,s the League of Lom- 
bardy and what its object? 16. What efforts did Archbishop 
Christian make to subdue the Lombard cities? 17. What 
battle finally brought Frederick to terms? 18. What rights did 
the cities secure by the Treaty of Constance? 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

M Oder 71 Europe. Russell. 

Roba di Roma. W. W. Story. 

Castle St. Ajige/o. W. W. Story. 

Rulers of the South. F. Marion Crawford. 

Cities of Southern Italy and Sicily. Hare. 



CHAPTER III 

EFFECTS OF THE PEACE OF CONSTANCE — DEATH 
OF FREDERICK BARBAROSSA — ST. FRANCIS OF 
ASSISI — FREDERICK II. — TUMULTS AND DIS- 
ORDERS IN THE CITIES 

As a result of the Peace of Constance, the Italian 
cities grew proud of their new position. They became 
confederates of the emperor, whose recent concessions 
had not failed to make him popular. And it is due to 
the princes of his house to say that for sixty-seven 
years after the Peace of Constance they made no 
attempt to infringe its conditions. 

Yet it was not long before the cities, though they 
fought no longer for independence, fought fiercely in 
the dispute between theemperors and pontiffs ; affection 
for the church or loyalty to the emperor continuing to 
influence men's minds for more than half a century. 
The popes had no wish to be reduced to the position 
of first bishops of the church of Rome, which would 
speedily have been the case, if the suzerainty of the 
kingdom of the Two Sicilies had passed over to the 
emperor; for this end Frederick had married Henry, 
his son and heir, whom he had already crowned king 
in Germany, to Constance, a Norman princess, sole 
heiress of the house of Robert Guiscard. 

When news reached Europe that Saladin had taken 
Jerusalem, in October, 1187, all Christendom was 

103 



I04 The Italian Republics 

struck with consternation, and Frederick Barbarossa 
placed himself at the head of the Third Crusade for the 
liberation of the Holy Land. 

This was the crusade made memorable by the chiv- 
alrous deeds of Richard Coeur de Lion. When Fred- 
erick took the cross his example was followed by his 
younger son, Frederick of Swabia, and by many of the 
most distinguished German nobles, and ecclesiastics, 
as well as laymen. Their rendezvous was at Ratis- 
bon, and to prevent the misfortunes which had befallen 
previous crusaders, Frederick decreed that no man 
should take the cross who could not afford to spend 
three marks of silver. In spite of this precaution, his 
army swelled to one hundred and fifty thousand fighting 
men, well armed and well provided with necessaries. 

Before leaving Europe, Frederick made a progress 
through the chief cities of his dominions, accompanied 
by Henry, his eldest son. Then selecting thirty thou- 
sand of his best men, he marched by way of Vienna 
into Hungary, and was there joined by the rest of his 
army. The Greek emperor, Isaac Angelus, was found 
to be by no means friendly, he was more favorable to 
Saladin than to the crusaders. Frederick attacked a 
body of his Greek subjects who attempted to take him 
by surprise, and laid the surrounding country under 
contribution. Having wintered at Adrianople he 
crossed the Hellespont in the spring of 1190, fought 
several battles with the infidels in Asia Minor, and 
filled the followers of Mahomet with terror. He 
seemed to be among the soldiers of the cross what 
Saladin was among his people — an able politician and 
a good general often much tried by fortune. 



Effects of the Peace of Constance 105 

When nearly seventy years of age he met his death, 
in June, 11 90, by plunging into the cold river Cydnus 
in order to refresh himself after a sultry day's march 
in the height of summer. A stroke of apoplexy seized 
him as he came out of the water, and his immense 
army made no figure in the crusade after it lost its 
leader. 

But German tradition thinks that Frederick Barba- 
rossa is not yet dead, that he is only sleeping until 
some great catastrophe menaces the empire, when he 
shall be called to life again and rescue Germany. He 
sits within a hill near Salzburg, say the peasants, their 
fancy excited by strange noises in the heart of the 
mountains. A peasant, once stumbling into his place 
of burial, saw him seated at a marble table, leaning on 
his elbow, apparently but half asleep; in the course 
of centuries his beard had grown through the stone 
itself and streamed out upon the floor. He looked at 
the peasant, asked him what time it was, and then 
closed his eyes again in sleep. It was not his hour to 
awake just then. 

Henry VI., his son and successor, received the 
news of his father's death almost at the time he learned 
that of his father-in-law, and thus was led to consider 
himself at once emperor of Germany, king of Lom- 
bardy, and by right of his wife, king of the Two Sici- 
lies. He marched into the latter country and distin- 
guished himself by his cruelties. But his career was 
short. He died suddenly in 1197, leaving an infant 
son, whose mother, Constance, died a year later. 

The child, Frederick II., was placed under the pro- 
tection of the pope, and acknowledged king of the 



io6 The Italian Republics 

Two Sicilies. He was crowned king of Germany at 
Aix-la-Chapelle with great magnificence in 1215, after 
humbling his rival, Otho, who in his turn, during his 
minority, had usurped the empire. 

But before we enter on an account of his reign, or 
take up the struggle that began between the burghers 
and the nobles of Italy, we will turn aside from wars 
and tumults to relate the history of a man born in 
T1S2, who was destined to exert a mighty influence 
on Christianity. 

His name was Francisco Bernadone. We know him 
as St. Francis of Assisi. Pietro Bernadone, his 
father, lived in that beautiful Umbrian city through 
all the disturbed period of Italian history of which we 
have been treating.* He was a prosperous cloth-mer- 
chant who kept a shop in his own city, but traveled 
with his goods to neighboring countries. On one of 
his journeys he met and married Pica, a young girl of 
noble origin in Provence. Pietro Bernadone may be 
taken as a type of the well-to-do tradesman and bur- 
gher of his times. He had engrafted on the rough 
faults of the plebeian the smoother defects of the 
parvenu. He adored pomp and pretension; he was 
eager for gain; not much given to courtesy; and at 
times he could give way to fits of brutal anger. On 
the other hand, he was active and energetic, not sloth- 
ful in business, and he did his duty as it was under- 
stood by his class in his community. 

In his disputes with his oldest son (who by no 
means turned out as he had hoped) we see that he 

'This account of St. Francis is abridged from an interesting article in 
the Revue des Deux Mojtdes, by Arvede Barine, translated for the Living 
Age, May 21, 1892. 



Effects of the Peace of Constance 107 

never objected to the lad's schemes for going to the 
wars, or for social advancement, but he did his best 
to hinder him from following out his tendency to 
mysticism, from developing in short into what in 
the eyes of a burgher of those days was a "ne'er do 
well.'' 

It was not thought unreasonable in those days that 
young men should comport themselves like unbroken 
colts, and Francisco Bernadone's conduct was of that 
description, but it is only just to say that for his follies 
every one in his city admired him. He was always 
"so lovable," said one of his biographers. 

Francisco's schooling did not amount to anything. 
He was a bad scholar, nor did he remain long at 
school, his father wanted him to measure cloth, and 
cared nothing for his studies. The young man applied 
himself steadily to business, and soon become a favor- 
ite with his father's customers. Meantime he was ac- 
quiring much knowledge that was wholly unknown to 
the priests of San Giorgio, who had had charge of his 
education. His mind had received an impress from 
Provencal poetry, that nothing in after life ever effaced, 
and he also had Nature for his teacher; long as he 
lived he loved her with unvarying affection, above all 
he desired that the very humblest of God's creatures, 
plant, insect, or bird, should enjoy its share of earthly 
happiness so far as it was capable of doing. 

This did not prevent him in early youth from assist- 
ing in an attempt made by the citizens of Assisi to get 
rid of a certain German count whom the emperor, 
Frederick II., had imposed on them as their ruler. 

At that period of Francisco's life he was a warlike 



io8 The Italian Republics 

stripling, impatient for adventure, for conquest, and 
for glory — above all for knighthood, which, although 
he was not of noble birth, he made up his mind he 
could and would attain. 

One of the nobles of Assisi gave out that he was 
about to start on an expedition of adventure, in which, 
according to the piratical ideas of that day, he pro- 
posed to win either wealth or glory. Francisco, with 
his father's consent, offered to join his company, and 
started with it from Assisi. But very soon he was laid 
low by malarial fever, during which he fancied he 
heard a voice calling to him to return to Assisi. He 
did so, and soon found himself selling rich wares in his 
father's shop to his father's astonished customers, who 
had fancied him on his way to win knighthood, if not 
a princedom. 

There is not space here to tell the history of his 
conversion. He believed himself to be entrusted with 
a mission to restore poverty to a place of honor, and 
make her cease to be a shame, though she might never 
cease to be considered a misfortune. His preaching 
seems to have amounted to this: that the sadness and 
the hopelessness of Christendom proceeded from two 
causes. He preached that life had been misunder- 
stood — and so had heaven. Men's mistake as to this 
life had been desire to possess things that are worth- 
less, such as riches, honors, vanities, and superfluities, 
instead of eagerly desiring that treasure beyond all 
price which can be found by all who seek for it — the 
treasure of true liberty! He realized that only a God 
of love could meet the needs of a world made bitter 
by suffering. It was necessary that men should under- 



Effects of the Peace of Constance 109 

stand as a first step to liberty of soul, that the foolish- 
ness of the Gospel is true wisdom. 

Vaguely from the time when, proud of his prancing 
steed and his glittering panoply of war, Francisco had 
set forth from Assisi to win knighthood, and had been 
turned back by a voice from heaven, he began to ap- 
prehend the causes of the mass of grief he saw around 
him. The groans of those who seemed without hope 
had always troubled him. He now saw that many 
sorrowed because the words of the merciful Jesus had 
been falsified for ages by those whose interest it was 
to misinterpret the Gospel rather than submit to its 
restraints. The tender friend of sinners, the man 
poor but divine, who had not where to lay his head, 
had in the popular faith given place to a being pom- 
pous and severe, whose crown was not of thorns but 
of gold, who spoke to his people only by the mouths" of 
high ecclesiastics who ranked with counts and barons. 
Primitive Christianity had fallen into discredit, and 
the proud system that had taken its place was power- 
less to offer consolation to the miserable. The moment 
Francisco perceived this was the turning point of his 
life. 

He was not the first man in Italy who had sus- 
pected the origin of the evil. For more than" two 
hundred years protesting voices had been heard from 
obscure haunts of the indigent, and from humble 
monasteries; nay remonstrances had sounded occa- 
sionally from the pulpit. 

There had been always, even in evil times, poor 
priests and monks full of charity and kindness, whose 
souls were stirred when they saw an abbot who com- 



no The Italian Republics 

ported himself like a robber baron, or a bishop engaged 
in factious strife, and their indignation increased when 
they turned their eyes upon the Roman hierarchy, and 
saw how the popes, with some noble exceptions, set 
the lower clergy an example of violence and iniquity. 
The popular conscience rebelled against such things, 
and all around Francisco could hear murmurs of- male- 
diction which only wanted occasion to break into 
revolt — a revolt which occurred later in the Refor- 
mation. 

The evils of the times which shocked good men 
were lamentable, yet one does not well see how in 
those days they could have been avoided — how the 
popes could have remained faithful to the traditions 
of primitive Christianity, and have preserved intact 
their evangelistic virtue in the centuries that followed 
the irruption into Rome of the barbarians, when the 
head of the church was exposed like any other man to 
the danger of being carried off by ruffians or murdered 
by a rival. In the western world in those days no 
place was more infested by robbers than Rome itself, 
no population was more brutal than the Roman people. 
The Holy City, whether with or without a pope, would 
have been the lair of greedy cut-throats and of evil- 
doers, but the presence of the pontiff increased the 
disorder. The city became the rendezvous of foreign 
conquerors and successful soldiers of fortune. The 
holy father lived in the midst of plots and disturb- 
ances, and could not even say a mass in security. 

From A. D. 897 to A. D. 985 (less than a century) 
one pope had been poisoned, two had been strangled, 
and four had died under suspicious circumstances in 



Effects of the Peace of Constance 1 1 1 

prison. Toward the end of the eleventh century, 
Gregory the Great, having ventured to attack certain 
great men guilty of simony, was carried off one Christ- 
mas night from the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore. 
In 1118 Gelasius II. was assaulted with stones and 
arrows while saying mass in another church in Rome. 
A state of things like this was unendurable, and there- 
fore it came to pass that the papacy shut up the Gos- 
pel, and learned to prize before all things wealth, 
which would buy power and men-at-arms. 

The doors of the temple were once more opened to 
traffic. The pope trafficked himself, and sold every- 
thing that men would buy, ecclesiastical dignities, 
spiritual immunities, temporal sovereignty, things 
sacred and things profane, without much concern as 
to who would be the buyer, provided only he would 
pay for what was sold him. 

What was to be expected then took place. Nobles 
bought bishoprics for men unworthy, or dowered their 
daughters by the sale of abbeys; great families com- 
bined to place some man selected from their own 
houses on the pontifical throne, hoping thus to secure 
for themselves the hen that would lay for them eggs 
of gold. 

Under this system the weak could expect no help, 
the suffering found no pity. Saint Francis founded 
an order that aimed to help them both; but it never 
occurred to him to suggest a reformation outside of 
the church — he never doubted the power of the church 
to work out her reformation from within. 

St. Francis and the twelve converts who first adhered 
to him, had no idea that they were going to found a 



112 The Italian Republics 

religious order. The little band that joined the 
preacher intended only to do as he had done, embrace 
poverty and bear a message of peace and good will to 
all who would hear them. 

They went forth two and two, preaching repentance 
and the remission of sins. Happy was the brother 
who had St. Francis for a comrade on a journey. As 
they walked he was continually discovering interesting 
and beautiful things along the road, and he talked of 
them so eagerly that his fellow-traveler would be at 
last persuaded that to dine on a crust under a tree was 
great enjoyment. The gaiety of St. Francis on these 
journeys was charming. It was one of his sayings 
that the devil has small chance with a man who is in 
good spirits, while the man who bemoans himself, who 
is sour and sad, runs great risk from the arch enemy. 

At length, as the number of his followers increased, 
St. Francis saw the necessity of drawing up some sim- 
ple rules to govern them, and decided to submit these 
rules to the pope. He left Assisi with his eleven dis- 
ciples and was astonished at the ease with which his 
object was accomplished. He met the bishop of Assisi 
on the way, who conducted him to the pope, then 
Innocent III., who saw at once what important serv- 
ices might be rendered to the church by the proposed 
order of Mendicant Friars. 

The brethren and their leader returned joyfully to 
the little hut that they inhabited at Postioncule near 
Assisi. Their numbers increased rapidly. The talk 
of St. Francis was like a strain of poetry. He taught 
his friars to love and admire nature. He taught them 
sympathy with birds and brutes. He loved God with 



Effects of the Peace of Constance 1 13 

a child-like adoration which had its influence even 
upon commonplace people and inspired them with 
heroism. 

About three years after their organization, he said 
to his disciples: "Let us go forth in the Lord's name 
and preach the Gospel." The rules he gave them 
were: Never 1o sit in judgment upon any man; to be 
invariably respectful to the clergy whether rich or 
poor, good or bad ; to preach everywiiere peace and 
good will; to love God and to love each other. 

New convents of these Minorite Friars, as they were 
called, sprang up in all directions. There were soon 
thousands of the brethren who had never seen St. 
Francis, and had never learned from him how to be 
gentle and generous without impairing their author- 
ity. As his friars swarmed over Italy, St. Francis 
grew alarmed at their numbers, and was heard to say, 
"One meets too many of them." 

Their most powerful friend and patron was Cardinal 
Ugolino, who became Pope Gregory IX., in 12 16. 
He gave them a few lessons in worldly wisdom, and 
also wrote letters to the higher clergy in foreign coun- 
tries that under their protection preachers of the new 
order might do their work. Soon "the sect of St. 
Francis" was spread over all Europe. 

Women joined the order under Santa Clara of 
Assisi, who by the direction of St. Francis, founded 
the sisterhood of Saint Claire. 

At length a third order was established, an order of 
laymen. INIembers might lead their ordinary lives. 
They were not vowed to celibacy, or bound for life, 
but they pledged themselves not to bear arms, except 



114 The Italian Republics 

in defense of the church, of the faith of Jesus Christ, 
or of their country, unless by permission of their 
superiors. This struck a heavy blow at the power of 
the nobles, which was founded on the service in war 
of their vassals. The third order was instituted in 
1222, and six years later began a great struggle in 
Italy against the feudal system. 

St. Francis undertook the work of a missionary in 
the latter part of his life, and went to Egypt to con- 
vert the sultan, while the crusaders were besieging 
Damietta. He effected no conversion, but the sultan 
was so delighted with him that he offered him great 
possessions if he would remain at his court. The 
saint and his companion were persecuted to accept all 
manner of favors, but this was the only persecution 
they endured. 

The last years of the noble saint's life were clouded 
by the insubordination of some of his followers. When 
in bad health he endured a fast of forty days on Mount 
Alverno, and soon after coming down to his convent 
he died, broken in spirit, for he felt that however great 
was his popularity among the people, the cause he had 
at heart had been betrayed. Finding his death hour 
approaching, he asked those around him to sing his 
o^-n beautiful "Hymn of the Creation" — a sort of 
adaptation of the Benedicte; a flock of birds, as he 
was dying, were chirping on the roof over his head. 
He died in 1226, but no man knows at this day where 
he was buried. As his funeral procession was on its 
way to the mausoleum made ready to receive his corpse, 
it was assaulted by archers, and in the tumult the 
coffin disappeared. 



Effects of the Peace of Constance 115 

But wherever his remains may rest, the work was 
great that he accomplished. It was not all the work 
that he expected to achieve, but he left an impress on 
all forms of intellectual life in Italy. His "Hymn of 
the Creation" was the first poem in the language of his 
country. His friars, by his direction, preached in the 
vulgar tongue. Dante was inspired by his example 
to write his great poem in Italian, after he had com- 
posed many cantos in Latin, and thus Italian literature 
received its first impulse from St. Francis. Science 
even profited by his thoughts, though he conceived 
himself to be an ignorant man. He pointed out the 
universal harmony which pervades God's creation, 
and this idea inspired Duns Scotus, of the University 
of Paris, to commence a revolution in metaphysics 
which subsequently extended to all sciences. But the 
highest glory of St. Francis lies in this, that he found 
the world unhappy, and that he left it less sad. 

Yet out of his noble work sprang some of the deep- 
est sorrows and worst sufferings that darken the pages 
of modern history. Inspired by his example, St. 
Dominic, at Toulouse, in 1226, established an order 
of preaching friars to attack and confound heresy, and 
thence arose the holy office, the terrible institution of 
the Inquisition. 

The contest of the free cities with the emperor to 
gain their independence having been brought to a 
conclusion by the Peace of Constance, there was com- 
parative peace in Italy for fifteen years, during which 
the new republics (or communes) increased in power 
and prosperity; and then began a terrible struggle 
between the nobles and the burghers. The nobles felt 



ii6 The Italian Republics 

the change made in their position when the emperor 
abandoned his contest with the cities. They, in some 
measure, no longer had a country, their only security 
was in their own strength, for the Emperor Frederick, 
while authorizing the organization of cities, had not 
thought of giving organization to nobles dispersed in 
ca'stles. Nearly all the great families, during a cen- 
tury of warfare, had become extinct. While the cities 
of Lombardy were subject to the emperor, its marches 
or frontier were guarded by marquises, under whom 
were counts, etc., according to the feudal system. 
Of these powerful and princely marquises only four 
remained, the Marquis d'Este on the Veronese 
border, and three others in Piedmont. But their 
feudal power had ceased to exist. Their attachment 
was solely to the faction which was supported by their 
family. Some were Guelphs for the popes; some 
Ghibellines for the emperor. Those who felt them- 
selves secure in their strong castles, possessing still 
vassals and wealth, were for the most part, attached 
to the Ghibelline party. Those who lived on acces- 
sible eminences, upon plains, or near great towns, with 
which they were too weak to support a contest, entered 
into alliance with their citizen neighbors. They de- 
manded to be made citizens, and very soon they took 
a large share in the administration of the towns that 
had accepted them. As war was their sole occupa- 
tion, they and their followers were welcomed in the 
republics which stood in need of experienced soldiers. 
Before long they rose to consideration, and thence to 
power. But if these nobles displayed more talent for 
war and politics than plebeian burghers, they showed 



Effects of the Peace of Constance 117 

far less subordination to the laws. They built palaces 
in the cities which they fortified like castles, from 
which bands of bravos might emerge at any moment 
to rob or murder citizens who chanced to be accounted 
enemies by their master. 

The power of the consuls proved insufficient to sup- 
press such disorders, and before long all the cities 
revived the institution of \.\i^ podestas^ which owed its 
origin to Frederick Barbarossa. Th^podesta was chosen 
every year. He was an official who was at once a 
military commander and a judge. Some counselors 
were associated with him, and his government was 
called the signoria. The system was soon adopted in 
all the leading cities, and as it was supposed that any 
citizens promoted to ht podesta^ would be influenced by 
family or party ties, it was the custom to choose some 
knight who was either an independent nobleman, or 
belonged to some other city. But he rarely escaped 
participation in the deep hatred raging between 
Guelphs and Ghibellines. And as authority in those 
times was always exercised with violence and cruelty, 
and injustice accompanied the enforcement of law, the 
citizens almost universally conceived great hatred for 
the nobles who were accused of having introduced 
disorder within their walls. 

Pope Innocent III. was a Roman noble, and was 
only thirty-seven years of age when he was raised to 
the papal chair by his reputation for sanctity and 
learning. But though he never seemed to desire 
power for himself, the power of the church he served 
was of supreme importance in his eyes. He founded 
the order of Dominicans or Black Friars, and sent 



ii8 The Italian Republics 

them forth to preach against heresy. He confided 
to them in the country of the Albigenses the power 
of the Inquisition, though the holy office at that time 
had not been so fully organized as it was a century 
later. 

But while Innocent III. aimed to increase the 
authority of the church over the sovereigns of Europe, 
he permitted the Romans under his own eye to estab- 
lish a republican municipal government. Rome, like 
the other Italian republics, soon had a foreign mili- 
tary chief, chosen for one year, and assisted by civil 
judges, dependent on himself. He bore the name of 
seiiator instead oi podesta. 

Pisa, at this time, had become a very powerful city. 
It had sixty-four castles or fortified towns on the coast 
of Tuscany. It was a strictly Ghibelline city. The 
emperors had conferred upon it Corsica, Elba and 
other islands which it wrested from the Saracens. 

Florence was of the Guelph party; it was attached 
to the pope, whoever occupied the papal chair, and it 
invariably opposed the emperor. Many illustrious 
Ghibelline families, however, lived in Florence, ap- 
parently on good terms with their Guelph neighbors, 
when on an unhappy day in 1215 an affront offered to 
a daughter of the Donati in Florence by a Guelph 
nobleman, to whom she had been promised in mar- 
riage, and who broke off the engagement, stirred up the 
Ghibelline families who were numerous in the city. 
The young man was killed as he was crossing the 
Ponte Vecchio. Forty-two families of the Guelph 
party met, and swore that blood must atone for blood. 
Every day some new murder or some new fight dis- 



Effects of the Peace of Constance 1 19 

turbed the peace of Florence, and this feud lasted 
during the space of thirty-three years. 

Frederick II., grandson of Barbarossa, and king of 
the Two Sicilies, was crowned emperor in 1220. The 
young king then set himself to restore order in his 
hereditary dominions. He was thoroughly Italian, 
born in Italy, and the Italian language was his native 
tongue, though he also spoke fluently Latin, German, 
French, Greek, and Arabic. He had a taste for phi- 
losophy, and was independent in his opinions. He \vas 
believed to be the author of an infidel book, but 
although this was never proved against him, he was 
known to be opposed to much that was held sacred by 
strict adherents to the Roman Catholic form of 
Christianity. He married Yolande, daughter of Guy 
de Lusignan, titular king of Jerusalem, and went sub- 
sequently to the Holy Land, where he recovered Jeru- 
salem by treaty, not by force. 

It was at this time that the spirit of reformation 
that had manifested itself among the Albigenses spread 
throughout Europe. Those whom we might call Puri- 
tans in the church, disgusted with the corruption of 
the clergy or revolted by the violence and disorder 
that raged around them, renounced all ambition and 
the pleasures of the world and devoted themselves to 
a life of contemplation and holiness. They called 
themselves cathari^ or the purified ; paie?'ini^ or the re- 
signed, though possibly the name implied that they 
put their trust in the fatherhood of God. The free 
cities endeavored for a time to protect them from the 
Dominicans armed with the powers of the Inquisition, 
but Gregory IX. threatened to cast them off as allies 



I20 The Italian Republics 

of the church if they continued to show indulgence to 
those whom the head of the church had denounoid as 
its enemies. jNIany of the /^//vV// were therefore burned 
in Milan, and numbers also suffered in other cities of 
Lombardy. 

The most powerful ally of Freaerick II. in Italy was 
Eccelino, a chief who was the same age as himself. 
He was popular in the north of Lombardy, where he 
had strong castles and commanded many soldiers. 
The inhabitants of Verona were induced by Frederick 
to name him captain of the people in their city, but 
his cruelty and rapacity soon made his name odious 
in every part of Italy. 

Frederick had a number of Saracen troops in his 
pay, drawn from colonies cf Saracens who had settled 
in his kingdom of Naples. A body of these men he 
left in Verona under the command of Eccelino, to- 
gether with a body of German soldiers to overrun the 
other cities of Lombardy. Eccelino used his author- 
ity with the utmost ferocity, and at length being joined 
by Frederick, who brought a reinforcement of ten thou- 
sand Saracens, a great battle was fought with the 
people of Milan. The citizen soldiers fought bravely, 
but their valor was no match for the experience and 
discipline of Frederick's trained forces. In the battle, 
which is known as that of Cortenuova, the Guelphs 
were defeated and the remnant of their army was only 
saved from utter rout by Pagano della Torre, a moun- 
tain chief who, as they fled through his defiles, pro- 
tected them by his castles. 

It is of little use to enter minutely into military 
movements at this period in Northern Italy. It seems 



Effects of the Peace of Constance 121 

better to say merely that the pope became greatly 
alarmed when he found the States of the Church 
hemmed in between Lombardy and Tuscany, under 
Frederick in the north, and in the south, Naples, his 
hereditary possession. He endeavored to obtain sup- 
port from the two maritime republics, Genoa and 
Venice, which had hitherto kept aloof from Italian 
politics. But the enthusiasm and vehemence of Pope 
Gregory roused them. He promised his supporters 
that the emperor should be excommunicated and de- 
posed by an ecumenical council, which he convoked 
not in Italy but at Lyons, placing himself under the 
protection of St. Louis of France. The council de- 
clared that for Frederick's iniquities God had rejected 
him, and all his subjects, under threat of excommuni- 
cation, were forbidden to obey him; and after this, 
now old and broken in health, he was in constant fear 
of assassination. His lieutenant, Eccelino, daily com- 
mitted new crimes, and the obloquy of his atrocities 
fell upon the emperor. 

Frederick's attempt to subdue Florence, still dis- 
tracted by the feud between the families of Guelph 
nobles and the Ghibellines, resulted disastrously for 
that city. The republic was supposed to lean toward 
the Guelph party. Frederick wrote to the Uberti, chiefs 
of the Ghibelline faction, orders to assemble secretly 
in their palace on the night of Candlemas, 1248, all 
the Ghibelline leaders; while his son, the king of 
Antioch, should present himself at the gates and 
assist in expelling the Guelphs from the city. This 
was done, thirty-six palaces belonging to illustrious 
Guelph families were demolished, and then the fierce 



122 The Italian Republics 

soldiers of Frederick, over-running Tuscany, compelled 
the Guelphs in other cities to follow the example of 
those in Florence. Frederick's relation to the church 
and to the Crusades added to the elements of friction 
in his distracted life, and the later months of his ca- 
reer were devoted to restoring order in the kingdom of 
the Two Sicilies. In December, 1250, he died, in the 
fifty-sixth year of his age, forty of which he had spent 
in almost uninterrupted strife. 

SUMMARY AND QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

Frederick Barbarossa and the crusade; his tragic death, 
1 190. St= Francis of Assisi. His home surroundings. De- 
moralization of the church. His conversion. The mendicant 
friars, Order of Santa Clara, order of laymen. Influence on 
Europe. His death, 1226. His influence upon Italian litera- 
ture and science. St. Dominic (1226) and the Dominicans; 
Innocent II L; heresy and the Inquisition; struggles between 
nobles and citizens; the podestas. Spirit of the Reformation; 
" cathari " and " paterini " burned in Milan and other cities by 
order of the Inquisition. Frederick II. crowned Emperor of 
Rome and King of the Two Sicilies, 1220. Wars with the 
cities; his lieutenant Eccelino. Gregory IX. convokes an 
ecumenical council at Lyons and excommunicates Frederick. 
Gregory dies, and Frederick, with the Ghibelline faction in 
Florence, drives the Guelph families from the city; other Tus- 
can cities also suffer. Proposed crusade with St. Louis of 
France, but dies 1250. 

I, How did the emperor ally himself with the Kingdom of 
the Two Sicilies? 2. Describe his crusading expedition. 3. 
What tragic fate awaited him? 4. Of what myth is he now 
the central figure? 5. Describe the home surroundings of 
Francis of Assisi. 6. In what stirring events was he concerned 
as a young man? 7. What was the nature of his conversion? 
8, Hpwbad the church fallen into disrepute among the people? 



Effects of the Peace of Constance 123 

9. What protests had been made against these conditions? 

10. How had tlie barbarism of the times been felt by the 
church? II. What was the result? 12. How did St. Francis 
begin his work of reform? 13. Describe the growth of the 
order. 14. What adverse influences did it meet? 15. Describe 
the close of the life of St. Francis. 16. How did his work 
influence Italian literature? 17. How did the nobles fare as 
the free cities grew in importance? 18. What was a /(?(f<?^/a .? 
iQ. How did the nobles become objects of distrust to the citi- 
zens of a city? 20. What two orders of friars did Pope Inno- 
cent III. encourage? How did their work differ? 21. How 
did Rome compare with other Italian cities at this time? 22. 
How did Frederick II. increase his power in Lombardy? 
23. How did he incur the enmity of the pope? 24. How did 
he succeed in humbling Florence? 25. What help at different 
times did he try to secure from St. Louis of France? 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Giotto. Harry Quilter. (Biographies of Artists.) 
St. Francis of Assist. Mrs. Oliphant. 
Cities of Southern Italy and Sicily, Hare. 
The Holy Roman Empire. Bryce- 



CHAPTER IV 

MANFRED — CONRADIX — ECCELIXO 

Frederick's son. Conrad IV.. who succeeded him as 
king of Germany, felt himself too weak to continue 
the conflict between emperor and pope in Italy. 

It was now the middle of the thirteenth century. 
The three hundred years had done little to civilize 
central Europe, and we know very little about the 
social conditions that prevailed there; something 
we know of victories and defeats, of quarrels with the 
church, and of changes of dynasty, but what concerned 
the plebeians of Europe in those days was not con- 
sidered worthy of history. During these three centu- 
ries, however, from the invasion of Otho the Great in 
951 to the death of Frederick 11. , 1250, the towns of 
Italy had prodigiously advanced in wealth, intelli- 
gence, energ}-, and independence. From 1150 to 11 83 
they fought to obtain the Peace of Constance ; from 
1 183 to 1250 they preser^'ed the privileges they had so 
gloriously acquired ; now we are to see how they lost 
their liberty. The Ghibellines, thinking only of at- 
tachment to a family that had given them so many 
great sovereigns, and wishing to own a more central 
authority ruling a united Italy, were ready to ven- 
ture their all in the cause of the emperor; the 
Guelphs, alarmed for the independence of the 
church and for the liberty of their towns, placed 

124 



Manfred — Conradin — Eccellno 125 

themselves on all points in opposition to the imperial 
power. 

By 1 3 10 the cities of the League of Lombardy had 
reached the summit of their power when Henry VII., 
of Germany, invaded Italy after an interregnum of 
sixty years. The republican cities, each one of them 
a prey to the spirit of faction, had submitted them- 
selves to the military power of nobles, to whom they 
entrusted the command of their militia, and thus one 
after another they lost their liberty. 

Conrad died three years after his accession, leav- 
ing a young son, known in history as Conradin, whose 
story is a tragedy. Manfred, a natural son of Fred- 
erick II., was a young man of great promise, who set 
his heart on recovering the kingdom of the Two Sici- 
lies, which Innocent IV. had invaded, and in his own 
person preserving it for descendants of the Norman 
race. The Saracens settled in the country, stanchly 
stood by Manfred in opposition to the pope, and for 
some time it appeared as if under so energetic and 
popular a leader, the Ghibelline party was likely to 
prevail. The suffrages of the electors in Germany 
were divided after Conrad's death between two 
princes. The claims of the infant Conradin were set 
aside, half the electors voted for Richard, duke of 
Cornwall, an English prince, son of Henry III., 
the other half voted for a Spaniard, Alphonso of 
Castile. Neither of these candidates had ever been in 
Germany. 

Pope Innocent IV. was in France when he heard of 
the death of his enemy, Frederick II. He gave bound- 
less expression to his joy, and hastened back to Italy, 



126 The Italian Republics 

where he entered Milan with great pomp, as if he had 
returned in triumph. That city had just confided to 
its podesta the power to levy new taxes; for long wars 
had exhausted its treasury, and when the citizens 
found themselves treated by the pope with great arro- 
gance, threatened with excommunication for some 
supposed infringement of papal power, and were called 
on to spend money in his behalf, they became indig- 
nant. The Guelph spirit in their city was weakened 
from that hour. 

We of the twentieth century have to lament the 
struggles that took place in Rome during the thir- 
teenth, which was a period of faction and fighting in 
the history of the Eternal City, for its classical monu- 
ments, arches, gates, and tombs suffered greatly in 
these disorders. They were turned into fortresses, 
where fighting men, belonging to the great houses, 
entrenched themselves. The streets seethed with 
perpetual tumult; the people were terribly oppressed 
by the nobles ; these issuing from their strongholds, 
pillaged shops and houses, seized upon any persons 
whom they might meet, exacting large ransoms from 
them, braving the authority of the senate, and laugh- 
ing at the ineffectual rage of the people. 

In 1253 the Romans, wearied with these disorders, 
called upon Brancaleone d'Andolo, of Bologna, him- 
self a noble, to become senator to take command of 
their militia, to put an end to these outrages, and, as 
justice in those days meant violence and summary 
punishment, Brancaleone proved worthy of the trust 
imposed in him. He stormed the strongholds of the 
nobles, massacred their bravos, hung many men of 



Manfred — Conradin — Eccelino 127 

high birth from the windows of their palaces, and 
razed to the ground the towers they had built as super- 
structures on the tombs and arches they had converted 
into fortresses. The pope, to be out of the way while 
this reign of terror was doing its work, retired to 
Assisi, but Brancaleone sent him word that he must 
come back, for it was not decent for the head of 
the church to be wandering like a vagabond. He 
added that if he did not obey this message, he would 
send his soldiers to Assisi and burn him out of the 
town. Saint Francis happily was dead, or what might 
have been his feelings! 

One by one the cities learned that when order could 
only be maintained by the iron hand, the iron hand 
would soon crush liberty. The only city in Italy in 
those days that seemed to value justice more than 
peace, and the security of the citizen more than the 
punishment of the guilty, was Florence. When, how- 
ever, the Ghibelline nobles expelled the Guelphs in the 
last year of the reign of Frederick II., these men began 
to imitate the example set them by nobles in other 
cities, but their powder soon became insupportable to 
the proud, intelligent, and wealthy citizens of Flor- 
ence, amongst whom were such men as Brunetto Latini 
and Guido Cavalcanti, whom Dante celebrates for the 
simplicity of their manners, the sobriety of their 
habits, and their bodily strength. 

The citizens of Florence, under the leadership of 
such men, made an almost bloodless insurrection, 
established a tribunal in which twelve magistrates, 
under the podesta^ sat as judges, attacked and demol- 
ished the towers which served as the refuo^e for the 



128 The Italian Republics 

nobles, and thenceforward made all men equally 
amenable to the common laws. 

Shortly after this, when news was received of Fred- 
erick's death, the Guelphs who had been expelled from 
Florence by his order, were recalled. But Florence, 
though at peace within her walls, soon engaged in 
other warfare. The year 1254 is called in her history, 
"the year of victories," but it better deserves remem- 
brance as being the year in which Florentine citizens 
refused to profit by an act of treachery, and restored 
to their enemies the citadel of Arezzo. Florence 
alone coined honest money. All other sovereigns, 
cities, and republics tampered with the currency. 

A conspiracy of Ghibellines in 1258 endangered the 
liberties of Florence, and they were expelled from the 
city. They took refuge at Sienna. Their most es- 
teemed leader was Farinata degli Uberti, whom Dante 
says he met afterward in the circle of the inferno 
reserved for heretics. Farinata had been an epicu- 
rean, who having no belief in another world, was de- 
termined to enjoy himself in this. But the Dominicans 
and the Inquisition took no notice of his opinions. 

After his expulsion from Florence, he joined Man- 
fred, who had established himself on the throne of 
the Two Sicilies, and persuaded him that it was 
necessary for the security of his kingdom to secure 
Tuscany, and to assume the leadership of the Ghibel- 
line party. 

By intrigue Farinata contrived that the sigiioria of 
Florence should send their soldiers to surprise Sienna, 
but he took care that Sienna should be fully prepared 
to receive them. The battle of Monte Aperto took 



Manfred — Conradin — Eccelino 129 

place September 4, 1260. It was the Guelphs who 
were surprised by an attack from Farinata. They 
were in much stronger force than the Ghibellines, but 
the latter had reason to expect that a large band of 
German troops who served in the Florentine army 
would desert when the battle began. Then Bocca 
degli Abbati, placing himself at the head of the trai- 
tors, suddenly seized from the carroccio the great stand- 
ard of the republic and threw it to the ground. The 
Guelphs were panic-stricken and fled. It is said that 
they left ten thousand men dead upon the field. Dante 
met Bocca degli Abbati afterward in the lowest hell, 
where traitors met their punishment. But he deals 
far more gently with Farinata, who when the Siennese, 
after the battle, wanted to demolish Florence, opposed 
them with all his eloquence. He protested that he 
loved his country far better than his party; and that 
he would with those same companions in arms, whose 
bravery they had witnessed in the battle of Monte 
Aperto, join the Guelphs and fight for them sooner 
than consent to the ruin of what was in the world 
most dear to him. 

Eccelino was now the leading man of the Ghibel- 
line party, and as such the leading man in Lombardy. 
The republics of Verona, Vicenza, Padua, Feltre, and 
Belluno made him their captain, but his authority 
soon became a frightful tyranny ; any one whomi he sus- 
pected was thrown into prison, and there, by the most 
excruciating tortures, made to make confessions of 
crimes, real or imaginary, that might justify the tyrant 
for his treatment. 

We need not recount all the horrors historv records 



130 The Italian Republics 

of the administration of Eccelino. He died at last, 
when at a critical moment, his ancient associates 
deserted him, being disgusted with his crimes. 

The defeat of this man was the last great effort 
made by the Lombards against the establishment of 
tyrannies in these cities. It became the custom to 
confide absolute power to a single person. The nobles 
had acquired new power by learning to fight on horse- 
back, and in armor. This obliged the citizens to enlist 
roving adventurers, called bands of free companions 
to be a match for the satellites of the nobles, who were 
bravos to whom they gave shelter in their palaces, 
and who took advantage of any tumult to plunder the 
shops and houses of the citizens. 

As the podesta was general-in-chief of all the forces 
in a city, as well as chief judge, his power was absolute 
and became dangerous to liberty. In Milan, Pagano 
della Torre was made captain of the people, and four 
of his family succeeded him; among them was one 
called Napoleone. But the pope, growing jealous of 
the family of Della Torre, appointed a Visconti to be 
archbishop of Milan, who, after some years, procured 
the appointment of one of his own family as head of 
the state. Mantua chose the Count de Bonifazio as 
its general and judge. Verona chose Mastino della 
Scala, Ferrara the Marquis d'Este, and so on in other 
cities. These nobles so firmly established their power 
that it at length came to be considered hereditary in 
their families. 

The Guelph party, since the offense given by Inno- 
cent IV. to his adherents in Milan, had become weaker. 
The party of the Ghibellines was all-powerful in North- 



Manfred — Conradln — Eccelino 131 

ern Italy, and Manfred, who called himself king of 
Apulia, seemed on the point of making the whole pen- 
insula a united monarchy. 

In 1 26 1 a Frenchman was elected pope and took 
the name of Urban IV. He proposed to offer the 
crown of Sicily to a prince capable of defending the 
patrimony of the church and Southern Italy from 
the encroachments of Manfred. That prince was 
Charles of Anjou, the brother of Saint Louis of France. 
Charles had already signalized himself in war. He was, 
like his brother, a faithful believer, fanatical in his 
opposition to the enemies of the church. He accepted 
the offer of the pope, and his wife, Beatrice of Pro- 
vence, was so eager to be queen of the Two Sicilies, 
(for that kingdom was the prize for which Manfred, 
the leader of the Ghibellines, and Charles, leader of 
the Guelphs, were to contend), that she pawned her 
jewels to assist in levying an army of thirty thousand 
men, whom she led herself through Lombardy. 

Charles is described by Villani, a contemporary his- 
torian, as "wise and prudent, valiant in arms, but 
rough, and much feared and redoubted by all kings in 
the world; magnanimous, and of a high spirit; stead- 
fast in carrying on every great enterprise; firm in 
every adversity and true in every promise, speaking 
little and doing much. He laughed but seldom, was 
chaste as a monk. Catholic, harsh in judgment, and of 
a fierce countenance; large and muscular in person, 
with an olive complexion, and a large nose. He sat 
up late at night, and was in the habit of saying that 
much time was lost in sleeping. He was generous to 
his knights, but eager to acquire land, lordship, and 



132 The Italian Republics 

money wheiever he could, to furnish means for his 
wars and enterprises." 

Having gone to Rome with one thousand knights 
by sea, he made his entry into it in May, 1265; the 
year and the month of Dante's birth. 

Charles was at once invested with the kingdom of 
Sicily, and made senator of Rome. It was stipulated, 
how^ever, that the crown of Sicily should never be 
united to that of the empire, or to the sovereignty of 
Lombardy and Tuscany. In 1266 Charles, having 
entered the kingdom of Naples, fought a battle near 
Benevento. The cause of Manfred was bravely sup- 
ported by his German and Saracen troops, but the 
Neapolitans fled at once from the field, and the gal- 
lant Manfred perished. 

Malespina, in his history, tells thus of his death 
and burial: 

"Being left with but few followers he behaved like 
a valiant gentleman who preferred to die in battle 
rather than escape with shame. And putting on his 
helmet, which had on it a silver eagle for a crest, the 
eagle fell on the saddle-bow before him. Seeing this 
he was greatly disturbed, and said in Latin, to the 
barons who were near him: 'This is a sign from God, 
for this crest I fastened on with my own hands in such 
a way that it could not fall.' Yet he was not discour- 
aged, but took heart and went into the battle like any 
other baron without the royal insignia. It lasted a 
short time, for his forces were already in flight; they 
were routed, and Manfred was slain in the middle of 
the enemy." 

Search was made for his body. For three days it 



Manfred — Conradin — Eccelino 133 

was not found. Then one of his own camp-followers 
discovered it, flung it across an ass, and entered Bene- 
vento, crying: "Who will buy Manfred!" For this 
a French noble beat him with a cane. Deep was the 
grief of the barons who had been taken prisoners when 
they were called on to identify the body, and the 
French and Bretons in King Charles's army besought 
him that the corpse might have honorable burial. "I 
would do it willingly," said Charles, ''were he not 
excommunicated." So his grave was made close to 
the bridge of Benevento, and every soldier in the 
French army threw a stone on it. 

So long as he lived, his kingdom, notwithstanding 
the wars he waged with the church, rose greatly in 
wealth and prosperity, and in power, both by sea and 
land. 

The French proceeded to restore order in the king- 
dom of Naples, which meant, in their hands, extermi- 
nation and pillage. 

The victory at Benevento restored the Guelph party 
in Italy. The nobles who were captains of the people 
in the great cities, went openly over to the pope's 
party. But while the burghers of Florence changed 
their party, they safeguarded their civic liberties, they 
increased the power of their various councils, from 
which they excluded the nobles and Ghibellines, and 
they gave the corporations of trade, into which all the 
industrial population of the city was divided, a direct 
share in the government. 

It was about the end of the year 1267, ten months 
after the defeat of Manfred, that Conradin (son of 
Conrad and grandson of Frederick II.) arrived at Ver- 



134 The Italian Republics 

ona, with ten thousand cavalry. The Ghibelline aris- 
tocracy, which had fought for his grandfather and 
uncle, hastened to join his standard; so did the repub- 
lics of Pisa and Sienna, always in opposition to the 
Florentines. The Romans who were dissatisfied with 
Pope Martin for having changed his residence to 
Viterbo, opened their gates to Conradin, but gave him 
little aid in withstanding the French. 

The young prince (only sixteen) met Charles of 
Anjou, the usurper of his hereditary kingdom, in Au- 
gust, 1268; a desperate battle was fought in which 
Charles of Anjou came off victorious. Conradin, who 
had been confident of victory, escaped, and was about 
to embark for Sicily when he was taken prisoner. He 
was brought to Charles, who, without pity for his 
youth, esteem for his courage, or respect for his 
hereditary rights, exacted from the iniquitous judges 
before whom he subjected him to the mockery of 
atrial, a sentence of death. Conradin was beheaded 
in the market-place of Naples on the 26th of October, 
1268, and an uninterrupted series of executions long 
continued to fill the Two Sicilies with dismay and 
horror. 

Pope Clement IV. died one month after the execu- 
tion of Conradin. Germany had been many years 
without an emperor, and after the death of Clement, 
the papal chair remained unoccupied for thirty-three 
months, during which time Charles of Anjou remained 
head of the Guelph party, ruling over the whole of 
Italy, which had neither pope nor emperor. At length 
Pope Gregory X., a Visconti, induced the electors of 
Germany to choose another emperor. Their choice 



Manfred — Conradin — Eccelino 135 

fell on Rudolph of Hapsburg, ancestor of the present 
ruler of Austria-Hungary. 

In 1277 a new pope, Nicholas III., forced Charles 
of Anjou to renounce his title of imperial vicar as well 
as those of other offices and obliged the new Emperor 
Rudolph to give up all pretensions to suzerainty in the 
States of the Church, since which time until the Italian 
revolution in 1859, those states have been under the 
pope as their temporal ruler. 

At this time Otho Visconti, the archbishop of 
Milan, who had been driven from that city by Napo- 
leone della Torre, came back with many nobles and 
Ghibellines. Napoleone was surprised and taken 
prisoner by the archbishop, who was received back by 
Milan with enthusiasm, and thenceforward the city 
and its surrounding territory became no more than a 
principality governed always by a Visconti and recog- 
nized in Europe as a sovereign state. 

Nicholas III. was actively engaged in reconciling 
Guelphs to Ghibellines, and Ghibellines to Guelphs, 
w^hen he died suddenly after having been pope only 
three years. 

Charles, now king of the Two Sicilies, not only 
exerted influence but force to procure the election of 
a pontiff favorable to himself. He succeeded in that 
by carrying off three cardinals from the conclave and 
striking terror into the rest, who elected a Frenchman, 
a native of Tours. He took the name of Martin, in 
compliment to the patron saint of that city. 

Martin IV. labored to give the prince who patron- 
ized him the sovereignty of Italy. He reinstated him 
in all the posts of dignity and honor from which Greg- 



136 The Italian Republics 

ory X. had deposed him, and he encouraged him to 
make war on the Greek emperor, and take possession of 
towns in Italy. The son of the last Latin emperor 
of Constantinople, whose dominions had been wrested 
from him in 1261, had married a daughter of Charles 
of Anjou. 

Great preparations were being made for this expe- 
dition when an outbreak took place in Sicily, which 
upset all the plans of Charles, and threw him into such 
a rage that he swore that if he could live a thousand 
years he would never cease razing the cities of Sicily, 
burning its lands, and torturing his rebellious subjects. 
He would leave Sicily, he said, "a blasted, barren, 
uninhabited rock, as a warning to the present age, an 
example to the future." 

John of Procida the friend, confidant and physician 
of Frederick II. and of Manfred, heartsick at the cruel- 
ties of the French, had made his way to Sicily in 
disguise, and did his best to stir up a rebellion among 
the inhabitants. It probably did not take the form he 
would have wished, but he prepared men's minds for 
what was coming. 

On March 30, 1282, a bride was on her way to the 
church of Montreal in Palermo to be married. She 
was leaning on the arm of her bridegroom when one 
of the French garrison came up and insisted on search- 
ing her person, claiming that she might have concealed 
weapons. This outrage roused not only her relatives 
but the whole population of Palermo. The bells were 
ringing for vespers, when a shout arose: "To arms! 
death to the French." The French soldiers, taken 
by surprise, were at once overmastered by the exas- 



Manfred — Conradin — Eccellno 137 

perated Sicilians. Some tried to escape by passing 
themselves off as Italians, when at once they were 
ordered to pronounce two words : ^m and ciceri. In all 
cases their mispronunciation betrayed them, and they 
were instantly massacred. In a few hours more than 
four thousand French were slain. Every town in Sic- 
ily followed the example of Palermo, and thus the 
Sicilian Vespers overthrew the tyranny of Charles of 
Anjou, and of the Guelph party, separated the king- 
dom of Sicily from that of Naples, and transferred the 
crown of the former to Don Pedro of Aragon, the son- 
in-law of Manfred, whose wife was considered the 
heiress to the house of Hohenstaufen, whose claims 
to these kingdoms came through the Normans. 

SUMMARY AND QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

The cities of Italy increased in weahh and power from 951; 
fought to secure Peace of Constance, 1150-1183; preserved 
their privileges until 1250, then fell under the power of the 
nobles. Reign of terror at Rome in 1253. Florence secures 
justice to her citizens. The treason of Farinata degli Uberti. 
Fall of Eccelino; the nobles increase in power. Charles of 
Anjou becomes king of the -Two Sicilies. Death of Manfred at 
Benvenuto. Death of Conradin. No pope, no emperor. Popes 
Gregory X. and Nicholas III. humble Charles. The States of 
the Church separated from the Empire. The French Pope 
Martin IV., a tool of Charles. The Sicilian Vespers, 1282. 
Don Pedro of Aragon, King of Sicily. 

I. How were the efforts of Pope Innocent IV. to secure the 
Two Sicilies frustrated? 2. How did he weaken his cause 
with Milan? 3. What reign of terror took place in Rome in 
1253? 4. How did the affairs of Florence contrast with those 
of other cities at this time? 5. In what Ghibelline conspiracy 
was Farinata degli Uberti concerned? 6. Describe the battle 



The Italian Republics 



of Monte Aperto. 7. How was Florence saved from destruc- 
tion? 8. Give an account of the decline and fall of Eccelino's 
power, g. Show how the nobles gradually strengthened their 
hold on the cities. 10. How did French influence come into 
Italy with Pope Urban IV. in 1261? 11. Describe the over- 
throw of Manfred at Benvenuto. 12. How did this aflfect the 
Guelph party in Italy? 13. What did the Florentines do to 
safeguard their liberties? 14. What was the fate of young 
Conradin? 15. How was Italy ruled during her thirty-three 
months without pope or emperor? 16. How did Pope Nicholas 
III, hold in check both Charles of Naples and Rudolph of 
Hapsburg? 17. In what way was Pope Martin IV. the t<jol of 
Charles of An jou? 18. What were the "Sicilian Vespers?" 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



Italy: Rome and Xaples. Taine. 
Makers of Florence. Mrs. Oliphani. 
Italy : Florence and Venice. Taine. 



CHAPTER V 

ROME AND RIENZI — FLORENCE AND DANTE 

That from this time the history of Italy becomes 
still more incohesive and difficult to relate is the com- 
plaint of all historians. 

Charles of Anjou lived only two years after the 
Sicilian Vespers. He died in the winter of 1285 not 
seventy years old. Besides his fury against the Sicil- 
ians for the massacre of all the French in that island, 
soldiers, priests, laymen, women, and children, his 
last years were embittered by the captivity of his son 
and heir, who was held prisoner by the Sicilians. In 
1288 an accommodation was brought about by the 
good offices of Pope Nicholas IV., who drew up a 
treaty in which Charles II., in consideration of being 
set at liberty, agreed that the Guelph kingdom of 
Naples should be given to the house of Anjou, while 
Sicily, which was Ghibelline, should receive as its 
sovereign Pedro of Aragon. The two kings swore not 
to make war upon each other, but Pope Nicholas re- 
leased Charles from this oath, and authorized him to 
begin the war anew. It lasted twenty-four years, and 
occupied the whole reign of Charles II. 

The German emperors during this period ceased 

apparently to take any interest in Italy. Rodolph of 

Hapsburg and his three successors, never visited it. 

The Ghibelline party was transformed from an im- 

139 



140 The Italian Republics 

perialist party into a faction of the aristocracy; and 
relied on the nobles who were acknowledged rulers in 
the cities, for support, and not upon the emperor. 
The popes, too, seemed weary of Italian quarrels. 
Martin IV. died two months after Charles of Anjou, 
and the popes who succeeded him were chiefly occu- 
pied by endeavoring to aggrandize the noble families 
to which they belonged. 

One pope, however, Celestine V., was elected for 
his piety and his Christian virtues, but these proved 
unequal to sustain him in the struggles which at that 
time awaited every man promoted to the papal chair. 
His chancellor, Cardinal Benedict Caietan, soon con- 
vinced him of his incapacity, and induced him to 
resign; after having intrigued to succeed him. He 
w^as Boniface VIII. Dante assigned him his place in 
hell while he was still living, and is more bitter against 
him than against any other sinner mentioned in his 
poem. Saint Peter, in the Paradiso, utters a terrible 
invective against him, "which," says the poet, "caused 
heaven and earth to redden with sympathetic anger." 
The early English poet, Gower, also calls him "That 
proud clerk, misleader of the papacy." 

Before he had quite succeeded in frightening Pope 
Celestine into resignation, he went secretly by night 
to Charles of Naples, and said to him, "King, thy 
Pope Celestine had the will and the power to serve thee 
in thy Sicilian wars, but did not know how, but if thou 
wilt contrive with thy friends the cardinals, to have 
me elected pope, I shall know how, and shall have the 
will and the power. 

This quotation is from Villani, who says afterward, 



Rome and Rienzi — Florence and Dante 141 

**He was very lordly and demanded great honor, and 
knew well how to maintain and advance the cause of 
the church, and on account of his knowledge and 
power was much dreaded and feared." 

His inauguration is said to have been the most 
magnificent show that Rome had seen since the days 
of the emperors. In his procession from St. Peter's to 
the Lateran, he rode a splendid white horse nobly 
caparisoned, and not a humble ass, as was the usual 
custom. King Charles of Naples held his bridle on 
one side, the king of Hungary on the other. The 
great Roman nobles followed in a body. The proces- 
sion could hardly force its way through the masses of 
kneeling people. But suddenly a furious storm broke 
over the city, and extinguished every lamp and torch, 
leaving all in darkness. 

Boniface began by endeavoring to augment the 
power of the Guelphs through the aid of France, but 
he ended by quarrelling bitterly with Philip le Bel. 
"He was," says Mr. Story, author of Roba di Ronia^ 
"cruel, avaricious, and tyrannical, and, by means 
of his lavish indulgences, provoked the reaction 
which finally led to the Reformation." In his quarrel 
with Philip le Bel he found himself no match for the 
French king, who drove him back to Rome a prisoner. 
Too proud to yield he stood at bay, and menaced his 
enemies. Contemporary historians draw a piteous 
picture of him in his extremity, gnawing the top of his 
staff in his despair. At last unable to endure misfor- 
tune, in a fit of fury he dashed out his brains against 
a wall, in 1303. 

His successor, Benedict IX., reigned only eight 



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Rome and Rienzi — Florence and Dante 143 

It was in those days of outbreaks, terror, and con- 
fusion that Cola di Rienzi, son of an inn-keeper, began 
to address the populace. He attacked the nobles who 
were devastating Rome by their quarrels, and roused 
enthusiasm among the people. His story is a romance, 
ending in tragedy. When yet a young man he was 
sent as a deputy to Avignon to beg the pope to return 
to Rome. His associate in this embassy was the poet 
Petrarch, but Rienzi seems to have been the spokes- 
man. Next we find him in the Forum standing on 
some ancient fragment, and by his eloquence rousing 
his countrymen to shake off their apathy, cast off the 
tyrannous rule of the nobles, and restore their country 
to its ancient glory. The people listened, and the 
nobles smiled. But Rienzi was eloquent and in ear- 
nest, and carried his hearers with him. 

On May 20, 1347, when the popes had been forty 
years in Avignon, he summoned the people of Rome 
by sound of trumpet to the Church of San Giovanni 
to pray for the triumph of what he called "the good 
estate." 

With shouting, and with banners waving, he was 
escorted by an enthusiastic crowd, which, however, 
formed into an orderly procession, to the foot of the 
capitol, where pausing before two ancient basalt lions, 
he read aloud the constitution he proposed for "the 
good estate." The people accepted it with acclama- 
tion, and named him their tribune. 

His first triumph as tribune was over the great 
Colonna family, to whose chief, Stefano Colonna, he 
sent an order to leave the city. The prince, furious 
at his presumption, tore the order to pieces, and 



144 The Italian Republics 

vowed he would throw Rienzi from the windows of the 
capitol. Then the great bell of the capitol rang out, 
summoning the people to arms. They answered the 
appeal, and Colonna and other most powerful nobles 
in Rome were forced to seek safety in flight. 

From the first the rule of Rienzi was distinguished 
by justice, energy, and decision of purpose. Peace 
was again secured, authority established, law resumed, 
and liberty seemed about to be restored. But few 
men can bear the sudden acquisition of supreme 
power. Rienzi's head was turned by it. He assumed 
the pomp and state of a long-descended sovereign. 
The follies he committed through his love ^of show, 
and his desire for distinction, were worthy of some 
semi-insane emperor of Rome or Russia. 

He was made a knight with great pomp and cere- 
monial, and after hearing mass was endowed by the 
syndic of the city with a sword, girdle, and golden 
spurs, after which he addressed the people, citing the 
pope, the emperor, and Charles, king of Sicily, to give 
reason for any claims they had in Rome. Then, 
pointing his sword north, south, and east, he cried: 
"This is mine! this is mine! this is mine!" 

Irritated by a remark made to him by Stefano 
Colonna, who had returned to Rome, to the effect that 
more humble garments were befitting a tribune of the 
people than a regal cloak covered with embroidery 
and fringed with gold, he conceived the notion that 
the nobles were about to play him false. He seized 
the chief men of all the princely families of Rome, and 
made preparations for their execution, vowing that 
nothing should induce him to spare their lives; when 



Rome and Rienzi — Florence and Dante 145 

suddenly, without reason, he not only released all of 
them, but promoted some to important charges and 
offices in the state. 

The nobles after this left Rome, and began in truth 
to form a conspiracy to overthrow the tribune. They 
assembled their soldiers, devastated the country 
around the city, and threatened to march on Rome. 
Rienzi was no soldier. When Colonna advanced to 
the city gates he only rang the bells of the capitol, and 
recounted to the people his dreams, which had been 
full of good augury. The soldiers without the city 
hearing the bells ring, and supposing the Romans were 
preparing to attack them in the streets, were on the 
point of drawing back, when a young son of Stefano 
Colonna rode, unopposed, into the city. Finding him- 
self alone and unsupported, he was turning his horse 
to rejoin his soldiers, when he was thrown to the 
ground, and the people, rushing upon him, killed him 
on the spot. His father and his relatives with the 
troops that they commanded, rushed in to save or to 
avenge him. They were repulsed, and the tribune 
celebrated his triumph so vaingloriously, and with so 
little decency that he lost the esteem of the people 
who had hitherto supported him. 

At last when exhorting the populace to rise and 
expel a certain count, who had set his authority at 
defiance, he found no response to his eloquent words. 
Then he cried, passionately: ''After having governed 
you for seven months, I now renounce my authority!" 
But not a voice protested. He then retired to the 
castle of St. Angelo. The nobles returned to Rome. 
His power had vanished. 



146 The Italian Republics 

Rome next fell into a state of anarchy and confu- 
sion even worse than it had been before Rienzi became 
head of the government. The people stoned, assaulted, 
and expelled every noble who attempted to assume the 
reins of power. 

In 1353 Rienzi, who had been in hiding, protected 
by the pope's delegate and by some of the Orsini 
family, returned to Rome and was received with en- 
thusiasm by the repentant people. But he was no 
longer a free agent, the legate sought only to make 
use of him. All things that he attempted went badly, 
and ill-success is not forgiven by a Latin mob. A 
sedition broke out in Rome. The people rushed to 
the capitol with cries of "Death to the traitor Rienzi!" 
Abandoned by his guards and by nearly all his friends, 
his courage rose, and he showed his better self again. 

He put on his armor as a knight and stood on a bal- 
cony praying to be heard, while the populace below 
howled at him and pelted him. At last they set fire 
to the woodwork of the capitol, and Rienzi, putting the 
cloak of a porter over his armor, rushed down the 
flaming stairs and through the blazing chambers. Just 
as he reached the open air he was stopped. Then, 
seeing all was lost, with a flash of his former courage 
he flung off his disguise and said: "I am the tri- 
bune!" He was led by his captor into the crowd. 
At sight of him the mob drew back and became silent. 
Firmly he walked to the base of the basalt lions, where 
he had made his first appeal to the people, folded his 
arms, and looked down on the raging crowd. He was 
beginning to address the people, when an artisan near 
him plunged a pike into his heart. Then the cruel 



Rome and RIenzi — Florence and Dante 147 

populace fell upon his corpse and in every way mal- 
treated it. Finally in the Mausoleum of Augustus, the 
stronghold of the Colonna family, they burned it to 
ashes. 

We will now turn from Rome to the history of 
another great city during the same period, premising 
that the story of the lesser towns, if there were space 
to tell it here, was invariably of the same pattern: 
Nobles raised to power, and kept in it by bands of 
foreign mercenaries taken into their pay; people ex- 
asperated and turbulent, quarrels between Guelphs 
and Ghibellines, and between cities who called them- 
selves Ghibelline or Guelph. Florence, though she 
went through many of these experiences, preserved 
her liberty during the fourteenth century, and all the 
glory of Italy must be looked for in those days within 
her walls. 

Among all the terrors, tumults, and distractions of 
those times, everyday life went on with its human feel- 
ings, human interests, amusements, and anxieties. 
We have seen something of this in the household of 
the burgher Pietro Bernadone; we may now catch a 
glimpse of social life among the nobles of Florence at 
the same period, through the medium of the loveliest 
love story that has yet been unfolded to the world. 
Dante or Durante Alighieri was born in Florence in 
the month of May, 1265, the year and month in which 
Charles of Anjou was entering Rome. He came into 
the world when civic strife was raging in Florence, 
and it is generally thought that his father, a Guelph 
nobleman, was at the time of his birth one of tht fuori- 
usciti ox turned out ojies^ expelled from his city in one 



148 The Italian Republics 

of the political changes of that time. Nothing more is 
heard of him, however, in connection with his son's 
history, and the only thing we know about his mother 
is that "she was a woman of a disdainful soul." 
Dante seems, therefore, to have had no tender influ- 
ences around him in his early boyhood. He was care- 
fully educated, however, under the care of Brunetto 
Latini, an excellent man and learned scholar, who 
wrote a species of encyclopedia in French about this 
time. 

On May-day, 1274, when Dante was but nine years 
old, an entertainment was given in one of the palaces 
of Florence, to which all the great houses in the city 
sent their representatives, including their children. 
We might well desire a glance into those lofty halls 
and chambers, a glimpse, however brief, into medieval 
sociability. In the Italian free cities, it is evident, 
from contemporary memoirs, that young people en- 
joyed a liberty of social intercourse, not accorded to 
them elsewhere. In a corner of one room stood the 
future poet, a boy of dark complexion and very promi- 
nent features. He was gazing at the groups of Floren- 
tine maidens, among them, possibly Gemma Donati, 
his future wife, when his eyes lighted on one peerless 
o^irl whom he had never seen before. She was eis^ht 
years and four months old — we know her age exactly — 
and she was nine months younger than the boy who 
had quite recently completed his ninth year. From 
that moment the number nine had for him a peculiar 
significance. He worked it mysteriously into all his 
writings; to this day scholars are still discovering the 
mvstic number in all his verses. As he gazed at her 



Rome and Rienzi — Florence and Dante 149 

he felt himself in the presence of a revelation. "The 
glorious mistress of my soul appeared to me," he 
tells us, "called Beatrice, even by those who could not 
know her blessedness, but who felt instinctively that 
she was blessed. She was dressed in rich colors, crim- 
son predominating, her garments were modestly made 
and her ornaments were such as became her tender 
years and station." We learn elsewhere that her hair 
was like soft threads of woven sunlight, and her eyes 
of that hazel which has a tinge of green. She was the 
daughter of Folco Portinari, and even then it is be- 
lieved was promised in marriage to Messer Simone dei 
Bardi. From that moment, child though he was, love 
took possession of Dante. It flourished in a soil pre- 
pared for its reception, for Brunetto Latini had culti- 
vated his imagination and impregnated him with 
poetry. His boyish admiration was treated with in- 
dulgence by the young girl's elders. He saw her 
often, and as he beheld her growing into womanhood 
with so noble a bearing, so spiritual a beauty, he used 
to repeat to himself a line from Homer: 

"She seems no daughter of our mortal race, but daughter 
of the gods." 

He tells us, as Victor Hugo told his fiancee, how 
thoughts of her kept his heart pure, and he began to 
write of her in sonnets, beautiful sonnets, which ac- 
cording to a custom of the times, he published, as it 
were, by hanging them on the walls of one of the 
churches. By the time he was a young man he had 
acquired all the learning Florence could give him, 
together with the accomplishments of music and paint- 
ing. 



150 The Italian Republics 

He was young when he joined the Florentine army, 
fought at the battle of Compaldino, and was present 
at the seige of Caprona, the only warlike events that 
concerned Florence at that period, for the city was 
exceptionally peaceable at that time. 

Dante was born a member of a Guelph family. 
The Guelphs and Ghibellines having become some- 
what reconciled — since, as already stated, there was 
no emperor to lead the one party, or pope to excite 
the other — adopted a quarrel that had broken out in 
Lucca where the Guelphs were divided into Blacks and 
Whites — the Neri and the Bianchi. The Whites were 
liberal Guelphs, the Blacks the old ultra-conservative 
party. Dante belonged to the Whites, and their quarrel 
for long years raged as fiercely between the two factions 
as the old strife between Guelphs and Ghibellines. 

The day came when Beatrice Portinari was married 
to Messer Simone dei Bardi, No word in Dante's 
writings gives us to understand that she ever accepted 
or even appreciated his reverential homage. 

He appears to have been present, as a spectator not 
a guest, at her marriage feast when his feelings so 
overcame him that he nearly swooned. A lady sitting 
by the bride pointed out to her his pale, sad counten- 
ance, and Dante fancied that he saw her smile. 

The pang in his heart struck deep. He became 
ill, and some of the most beautiful poems in his New 
Life (the Vita Nuovd), record the visions that came to 
him upon his sickbed. But Beatrice did not live 
long. She died a year after her marriage. Exquis- 
itely beautiful are the lines in which Dante records how 
angels bore her to her place in heaven. 



Rome and Rienzi — Florence and Dante 151 

Dante married some years after the death of Bea- 
trice, Gemma, a lady of the proud house of the Donati. 
She bore him six children, among them a daughter 
called Beatrice. Some of their descendants are living 
to this day. 

Up to the time of his marriage, Dante had been a 
Guelph, but he belonged to the moderate portion of 
the party — the Whites or Bianchi, while the Donati 
were Neri, intolerant and violent. A terrible dispute 
broke out in Florence between these factions, when 
the Blacks proposed to support the pretentions of 
Charles of Valois (brother of Philip le Bel). The 
Whites opposed foreign interference with the govern- 
ment of their city. Dante, who had been a prominent 
man in his party, and had been charged with impor- 
tant offices, was banished with all the other leading 
Whites by the Blacks, who, assisted by Charles of Valois 
and his soldiers, pillaged, burned, and massacred in 
Florence. Both Dante and Petrarch were among the 
Whites condemned to exile. Dante was at that moment 
in Rome, 1301 (the year of Jubilee), Avhither he had 
been sent on a diplomatic mission, and he never again 
entered Florence, the city of his love. 

After this he openly joined the Ghibellines. His 
Divina Commedia is written from an anti-papal point 
of view. "He spent many years," says Leigh Hunt, 
"wandering over Italy, like some lonely lion of a man, 
grudging in his great disdain." 

At one moment he was conspiring and hoping, at 
another despairing and endeavoring to conciliate his 
beautiful Florence. He humbled himself to entreat 
the emperor, nobles in power, and even a pope, to 



152 The Italian Republics 

plead for his return to his own city. But in vain. 
He had personal enemies there, possibly the family of 
the Donati. 

He studied for two years at the Sorbonne in Paris 
and there is reason to think he there formed the ac- 
quaintance of Friar Bacon. He was recalled to Italy 
by the election of Henry of Luxemburg as German 
emperor, and during the brief life of that young man 
of great promise, his hopes for his country revived. 
When at length he did receive the long desired per- 
mission to return to Florence, coupled with the con- 
dition of paying a heavy fine and doing public penance 
in one of the principal churches, he refused, because 
the way proposed would "derogate from the fame and 
honor of Dante. " The remainder of his life was spent 
partly with Can Grande della Scala, at Verona, and 
partly at Ravenna at the court of the nephew of Fran- 
cesca di Rimini. 

In 1313 he undertook a diplomatic mission to 
Venice on behalf of his protector, Guido Malaspina of 
Ravenna. He failed, and returned home overwhelmed 
with disappointment. He fell ill on reaching Ravenna, 
and died there after twenty years of exile (1321) at 
the age of fifty-seven. 

Guido gave him a magnificent funeral and designed 
for him a splendid monument, but time failed him to 
put his project in execution. He himself died in 
exile. 

In vain the Florentines have endeavored to recover 
the dust and bones of him they once proposed to burn 
alive if he ever reentered their city. The people of 
Ravenna cherish his tomb. 



Rome and Rienzi — Florence and Dante 153 

Boccacio has spoken slightingly of his wife, Gemma 
Donati, but there is no evidence of any kind against 
her. She may have had a high temper and may pos- 
sibly have been jealous of her husband's early love. 
She lived on in Florence during his exile, educating 
her children and protecting the remnants of her hus- 
band's property. When she discovered the manuscripts 
of the first cantos of the Inferno which Dante had 
written in Latin, and left behind him when he went, 
in 1301, to Rome, she collected the sheets and sent 
them to him, though from the Vita Niiova she must 
have known that his great poem would be in praise of 
Beatrice. This does not seem like the act of a jealous 
woman! 

SUMMARY AND QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

The German emperors remain away from Italy. Pope 
Celestine V. in contrast with Boniface VIII.; the latter in- 
trigues with France and is overborne by Philip le Bel. The 
Babylonian captivity at Avignon, 1309-77. Henry VII. receives 
the iron crown at Milan; Lombardy revolts; the Romans oppose 
his coronation. Anarchy in and about Rome. Rienzi, the 
tribune ; his popularity, his vanity, and his fall. Dante born 1265 ; 
Beatrice; his share in the wars; a Guelph, one of the Bianchi; 
banished in 1301; becomes a Ghibelline; studies at the Sor- 
bonne; lives at Verona and Ravenna; death at Ravenna, 1321. 

I. How did the Ghibelline party change in character after 
the election of the Hapsburg emperors? 2. What distinction 
had Pope Celestine V.? 3. Describe the career of Boniface 
VIII. 4. During what period was the papal court in Avignon? 
5. How was Henry VII. frustrated in his attempt to be crowned 
in St. Peter's? 6. What lawless conditions prevailed in and 
about Rome at this time? 7. How did Rienzi become tribune? 
8. What efifect did success have upon him? 9. How did he 
forfeit the esteem of the people? 10. Describe his return to 



154 The Italian Republics 

Rome and his final overthrow, ii. What is known of the early 
life of Dante? 12. Describe his first meeting with Beatrice. 
13. How did he express his devotion to her? 14. What part 
did he bear in the wars of his time? 15. With what political 
party was he associated? 16. Why was he banished? 17. 
What efforts did he make to return? 18. What became of his 
family? 19. Where did he spend the later years of his life? 

20. Under what conditions was he allowed to return to Florence? 

21. What were the circumstances of his death? 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Giotto. Harry Ouilter. (Biographies of Artists.) 

Italy: Ro))ie and Xaples. Taine. 

Rienzi: The Last of the Tribwies. Bulwer-Lytton. 

Roba di Roma. W, W. Story. 

Ave Roma l77imortalis. F.Marion Crawford. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE MARITIME REPUBLICS VENICE, GENOA, 

AND PISA 

Venice^ was founded A. D. 421. It owed its ex- 
istence to the panic produced by the total destruction 
of Aquileia by the barbarian hordes of Attila, king of 
the Huns. The inhabitants of the ruined city sought 
safety in the seventy-two islands formed in the lagoons 
at the northern part of the Adriatic, and they were 
there joined by other fugitives from northern Italian 
cities, who felt themselves safe from the barbarians 
only when surrounded by the sea. Forty years after- 
ward the cornerstone of a city was laid, and an 
assembly was called at Grado, to elect tribunes to 
govern the affairs of each island. The lagoon popu- 
lation thus formed itself into an independent republic. 

The next great step in Venetian history was the 
election of a duke or doge. The authority of such 
an officer seemed necessary to keep dowm rivalry 
between the inhabitants of many islands now con- 
fined side by side in the narrow circumference of 
the lagoons. For nearly six hundred years, that is, 
until the beginning of the twelfth century, Venice was 
governed by her doges, assisted by the tribunes of 
the islands, and by a privy council of twelve other 

' For many passages in this chapter the writer is indebted to An His- 
torical Sketch of Venice, by Horatio F. Brown. 

155 



156 The Italian Republics 

tribunes, elected by the whole body of dwellers on 
the islands in the lagoons. "No power of prince or 
emperor can reach us," said the Venetians, "save by 
the sea alone, and of them, therefore, we have no 
fear. " Venice obtained recognition from the Imperial 
Court at Constantinople as an independent state, and 
kept up friendly relations with the Eastern emperors 
for many years. 

Meantime, the city grew in wealth, importance, and 
prosperity. The Venetians quarreled occasionally with 
the Slav population of Dalmatia, and thus became 
trained in the use of arms. 

In 1 001 a great expedition was undertaken against 
Dalmatian pirates, led by the Doge Orseolo in person. 
It was entirely successful, the doge received the title 
of Duke of Dalmatia, and from that time to this the 
Venetians have celebrated the day on which Orseolo 's 
fleet sailed on that glorious expedition. It was at first 
a ceremony of thanksgiving and prayer, but in later 
years it developed into the magnificent annual cere- 
monial of the Espousal of the Sea by the Doge. By 
it the Venetians wished to emphasize the result of 
their past experience, viz., that they and the sea on 
which they lived were inseparably united. 

After this victory over the pirates of Narsa, the 
doge enjoyed great reputation. His alliance was 
courted by princes, and the Greek emperor entreated 
his assistance to deliver the governor of Bari, who, 
with his town, had been captured by the Saracens. 
The end of Pietro Orseolo was a sad one. The plague 
swept off his son, his grandson, his trusted friends, 
and his nearest relatives. He may be said to have 



The Maritime Republics 157 

died of a broken heart, at the age of forty-eight, after 
eighteen and a half years of the most splendid and 
successful dogeship that Venice had seen up to his time. 

Forty years later there was some attempt to estab- 
lish a dynastic dogeship in Venice. But the Venetians 
were determined to be free, and when the Caloprini 
in exile, offered to subdue and hold Venice for the 
Emperor Otho, the lagoons were found impregnable. 
"They saved Venice from domination by any foreign 
master, they also materially assisted to prevent any 
ambitious Venetian from making himself supreme 
through foreign aid, while the instinct in Venice pre- 
cluded him from founding a dynasty in any other way. ' ' 

At the close of the eleventh century, when Robert 
Guiscard planned to make himself emperor of the East, 
and led an expedition to the western coasts of the Adri- 
atic on his way to attack Constantinople, the Greek 
emperor invoked help from the doge of Venice, whose 
fleet gained a victory over the Sicilians, but the Greek 
army coming up on the land side, suffered defeat. 
The Venetians were indignant at the incapacity of the 
emperor, and the doge, who had endeavored to assist 
him, was deposed. The Venetians had another cause 
of complaint against this unfortunate official. He had 
married a Greek wife, who made herself odious to the 
Venetian ladies by her luxurious and effeminate habits ; 
not only did she take baths of dew, and wear perfumed 
gloves, but she insisted on using a fork at meals, an 
innovation that Venetian society could not put up 
with. Her husband indulged another kind of luxury. 
He caused artists to begin works in mosaic for the 
church of St. Mark. "He sent to all parts," says a 



158 The Italian Republics 

chronicler, "to seek out marbles and- precious stones, 
and to find master masons to carry out his large and 
marvelous designs in masonry." 

The body of Saint Mark had been removed by the 
Venetians from his buiial place at Alexandria, and he 
became the patron saint of their city. But no less 
does he hold the same office in Egypt, to the church 
of the Coptic Christians. Three brave and cunning 
men, who were in the port of Alexandria with a Vene- 
tian ship, A. D. 823, managed, by fraud and force, to 
steal Saint Mark's body. They put it in a basket, and 
that its hiding place might not be suspected, they 
covered it with pork and cabbages. The stratagem 
succeeded, the ship that bore the relics of the saint 
sailed safely into port, and the remains were received 
at Venice with every honor. 

When the crusades began, at the close of the elev- 
enth century, Venice was drawn into the current of 
European events, and her aid became invaluable to 
the crusaders. The display of her naval resources 
which the Norman wars had evoked, drew the atten- 
tion of the pope, the emperor, and all the crusading 
princes to the small city on the lagoons which could 
put large and triumphant fleets upon the ocean. 

There were no ftco?'i-usciti irom. among the citizens 
of Venice; no Venetian turned his hand against the 
city of his birth. Venice found no obstacles to the 
steady development of her commercial importance, 
her naval power, and her domestic institutions. 

"She had become a great emporium where the prod- 
ucts of many lands were stored, and whence they 
were distributed to the West. Wine and grain came 



The Maritime Republics I5'9 

from Apulia; wood from Dalmatia; gems and drugs 
from Asia; metal work, silk, and cloth of gold from 
Constantinople." 

Above all, Venice was a free state, her people could 
make war upon their own account, they coined their 
own money, and could legislate as they thought 
proper. Venice was young and vigorous in the midst 
of the decrepitude of other cities, free when the states 
around her were in slavery, and she was ready to take 
her place among the great forces of Europe when the 
crusades called them to united action. 

When first summoned to take part in the holy wars, 
the city was filled with enthusiasm. It sent forth a 
fleet of two hundred ships, which wintered at Rhodes, 
but no country takes part in the concert of great 
powers, as we of the nineteenth century know well, 
without getting itself into trouble. The emperor, 
in Constantinople at the time of the first crusade, 
secretly favored the Saracens, and when he found 
that the Venetians would not break their alliance 
with the soldiers of the cross, he determined to pun- 
ish them. 

The Pisans saw with great jealousy and annoyance 
the appearance of the vast fleet of their commercial 
rival in Eastern waters. They sent down a Pisan fleet 
to attack that of the Venetians which was lying at 
Rhodes, and they were defeated in the engagement 
that followed. The Venetians released all their prison- 
ers, except thirty of the most prominent men among 
them. But they soon found that they had made two 
powerful enemies, the Greek emperor and the republic 
of Pisa, 



l6o The Italian Republics 

In nine years, to assist this first crusade, Venice 
put three hundred ships of war upon the ocean, but 
this effort had greatly weakened her resources, and 
when the king of Hungary attacked cities of Dal- 
matia, which were in alliance with the Venetians, they 
were unable to defend them. At last, in 1118, when 
at open war with the king of Hungary, the republicans 
suffered a total rout. This did not prevent them, 
however, from fitting out another fleet against the 
Saracens. In it were beaked vessels, of what was 
then thought great size, each rowed by one hundred 
oarsmen. All were painted in brilliant colors, and 
sailed forth gloriously in the light of the sun. 

The crusaders found great help from the Venetians, 
and rewarded it by giving them especial privileges in 
all the cities they conquered on the coast of Palestine. 
This led in the end to Venetian supremacy in the 
Levant. And while Venice triumphant was filled with 
a proud sense of her own power and importance, the 
rest of Italy, as we have already seen, was at the same 
period torn by dissensions and civil wars. She, however, 
so far entered into the spirit of the times as to under- 
take a small war against Padua, her army being in 
great part composed of mercenary soldiers. 

Once more, in 1148, Venice assisted the Greek 
emperor (Manuel I.) against the Normans of Sicily. 
The Venetian sailors were victorious in fight, but a 
foolish jest on their part gave mortal offense to the 
emperor. 

When Frederick Barbarossa found the spirit of 
municipal independence strong in Italy, his first object 
was to crush it in Milan. He summoned for this pur- 



The Maritime Republics i6i 

pose all the Italians of the north to meet him at Ron- 
caglia near Piacenza, and Venice, among the rest, sent 
her contingent. But Frederick Barbarossa did noth- 
ing at that time, and when he returned to Italy from 
Germany with a fresh army, he found that all the free 
cities had determined not to support him. Venice 
especially was opposed to his ambition, and had joined 
the League of Lombardy. 

When the emperors of the West and East made 
peace, it seemed to Manuel that the moment had 
arrived for avenging the insult offered him by sailors 
in the Venetian fleet, twenty-three years before. He 
arrested all Venetians in his empire and seized their 
property. No consideration of their engagement to 
the League of Lombardy, or to the German emperor 
could restrain the Venetians from rushing into war 
with the Greeks; neither could financial considera- 
tions. A loan was raised, and is perhaps the first 
instance of the issue of government bonds. In one 
hundred days the doge had a fleet ready to put to sea. 
It was met on its way by ambassadors from Manuel, 
declaring he had no desire for war, and asking the 
Venetians to send an embassy to Constantinople to 
settle their dispute with him. It was a trap set to 
gain time, and it succeeded. The Venetian ambassa- 
dors were imprisoned, and the chief of them, Enrico 
Dandolo, was made blind, — perhaps only one eye was 
put out, for he afterward performed deeds of daring 
valor. The ships had been laid up at Chios and while 
there the plague broke out. Thousands of sailors 
died; the rest mutinied, and carried their plague ships 
back to Venice. Furious, with their doge who had 



I Si The Italian Republics 

sent forth the expedition, the citizens struck him down 
in the street and killed him. 

The Ventians were now convinced that they had 
given to their doges too much power. They made 
some changes in the constitution of their state, which 
lasted until 1311, when the famous Council of Ten was 
established. But the reforms made in 1171, were not 
in the interest of democracy; by them the young 
oligarchy of the republic took its first step toward the 
exclusion of the voices of the people. 

In the struggle between Frederick Barbarossa and 
Pope Alexander III., the two agreed at last to meet in 
Venice. Frederick took his place in the ducal gondola 
between the doge and the patriarch, and in procession 
was conducted across the lagoon to the Mole of St. 
Mark. There he landed and passed up the Piazzetta, 
until he came before the church where the pope was 
awaiting him, seated on his throne. At sight of him 
Frederick removed his cloak, and humbly bending, 
kissed his foot. The pope raised him, and bestowed 
on him the kiss of peace. 

When Innocent III. mounted the papal throne, to 
preach the fourth crusade was his great object and 
delight. He sent ambassadors to Venice to engage 
ships and the assistance of the Venetians. The doge 
promised transport for fifteen hundred horse, nine 
thousand esquires, fifteen hundred knights, and ten 
thousand foot, but he drove rather a hard bargain in the 
matter of remuneration. The ambassadors accepted 
his terms, however, and one of them, after mass, asked 
the assistance of the people in the enterprise, in re- 
sponse to which they all shouted, "We agree!" 



The Maritime Republics 163 

The Venetians thought, as indeed did all the cru- 
saders, that their ships were bound for the Holy Land, 
but there was a secret understanding among the cru- 
sading leaders that they would first attack the Sara- 
cens in Egypt, and would land at Alexandria. 

Disputes arose. The crusaders did not come up to 
their engagements about the transports, and accused 
the Venetians, when in consequence they drew back, 
of treachery. The Venetians, up to July, 1202, had 
not taken the Cross. However, on the 26th of August, 
St. Mark's day, the Doge Dandolo publicly asked his 
people if they were content that he should do so. 
They all answered, "Yes." 

There was intrigue within intrigue among the lead- 
ers of the crusade, for the fate of the deposed Greek 
emperor, Isaac Comnenuse and his son Alexius, entered 
into the situation. What the genuine crusaders feared 
was done. Constantinople was attacked and the em- 
peror reinstated. But the crusading soldiers received 
far less pay than they expected, revolutions followed, 
and the emperor and his son were overthrown. Dan- 
dolo and Boniface of Montferrat, twice assaulted 
Constantinople, and at last took it together with its new 
emperor. The army of the Cross had become a scourge 
more terrible to Greek Christians than any pagan host 
had ever been. 

These events bring us down to the year 1202. 
There was talk in the army of choosing a new emperor 
of Constantinople. Boniface, Dandolo, and Baldwin 
were the candidates. Dandolo declined the honor, 
but gave his vote and influence for Baldwin, who was 
elected. 



164 The Italian Republics 

Thus ended the fourth crusade, which had never 
attacked the infidels. Venice acquired great influence 
in the Mediterranean and had a large share of the rich 
spoils of the Imperial City. But in the end these 
events exposed the republic to a long series of wars, 
and materially contributed to her ultimate ruin. 

From this time for a hundred and fifty years the 
history of Venice is chiefly the history of Constanti- 
nople and of the Greek empire. At one time there 
was on foot a proposal to abandon Venice for Con- 
stantinople. It was urged that the interests of Venice 
were decidedly in the East, that the. center of govern- 
ment was too far away from its possessions, and that 
the city was exposed to danger from earthquakes and 
floods. But patriotic feeling at once put aside the 
proposal. No people in Italy were more deeply 
attached than the Venetians to the very stones of 
their city. When the municipalities of Lombardy 
adopted the policy of putting themselves under the 
rule of podestas from foreign cities, Venetian nobles 
were in great request. It strengthened the republic 
to have her citizens rulers of such neighboring cities 
as Treviso and Padua. 

The continual struggle caused by commercial jeal- 
ousy between Venice and Genoa we may tell later in 
this chapter. We may pause, however, to tell of the 
conspiracy of Marino Faliero in 1354, a story less 
known through history than in poetry. Born in 1274, 
he was nearly seventy when he commanded the Vene- 
tian forces at the seige of Zara, where in 1346 the 
Venetians gained a complete victory over the king of 
Hungary. Faliero was elected doge in 1354. His 



The Maritime Republics 165 

reign had a tragic commencement and a tragic close. 
The Venetians were at war with Genoa, and the Vene- 
tian fleet was captured by the enemy. Faliero, though 
a prudent statesman, had a hot temper. A young 
noble having taken some liberties with a maiden of 
one of the noble houses, Faliero ordered him to be 
expelled from a scene of festivity. In revenge for 
this the young man wrote some scurrilous lines which 
he affixed to the doge's chair. He was arrested for 
this offense and condemned to two months' imprison- 
ment. But the doge, deeming this punishment insuffi- 
cient, headed a conspiracy to arrest all the nobles in 
Venice, and to make himself despot of the republic. 

The conspiracy was, however, discovered, and the 
doge and the principal conspirators having been 
arrested, were executed April 17, 1355. Petrarch, 
who was Faliero's friend, has related the circumstances 
of this plot in one of his letters. 

The Venetians who exercised a preponderating 
influence in the Levant, obtained possession of Cyprus 
in 1487. Catarina Cornaro, a Venetian lady, had 
married James, king of the island, who by that mar- 
riage, hoped to secure the support of the powerful 
republic. But King James and his successor dying 
without children, Catarina found herself unable to 
resist the increasing power of the Turks, and surren- 
dered her sovereign power to the Venetian republic 
(1487) and the Venetians retained the island for eighty 
years. 

In 1204, when the Greek empire was broken up, 
Crete fell to the share of Boniface, marquis of Mont- 
ferrat, who sold it to the Venetians. They governed 



1 66 The Italian Republics 

the island for four hundred years, but their rule was 
considered more oppressive and arbitrary than that of 
the Turks, especially as they introduced the Inquisi- 
tion, which had been established in Venice in 1250. 
In 1648, after the Venetians had held possession of 
the island for four centuries, it was reconquered by 
the Turks, and ever since has had a turbulent and 
distracted history. 

"Genoa, the commercial rival of Venice, was among 
the grandest of the medieval republics, and was almost 
the most powerful; in her career she humbled Pisa, 
and she well-nigh triumphed over her great rival, 
Venice. Princes were her vassals, kings her prison- 
ers. She was the pioneer in the paths of commerce 
for the Dutch and for the English. Her factions at 
home, and her wars abroad were long before they 
could eradicate her inherent vitality. After each revo- 
lution she roused herself with new vigor, and it was 
not until after her own citizen, Christopher Columbus, 
had discovered for other powers new sources of wealth 
and commerce, and her own mariners had doubled 
the Cape of Good Hope, that her decadence set 
in." 

When the crusades were preached, and Venice was 
asked to furnish transport to the soldiers of the Cross, 
Genoa was also called upon to lend her assistance. 

Richard Coeur de Lion, on his way to the second 
crusade, embarked at Genoa, and in compliment to^ 
that city, adopted St. George, its patron saint, as the 
champion saint of England. As St. George was a 
Cappadocian Christian the ecclesiastical herald's 
office had to find him a family record that would asso- 



The Maritime Republics 167 

ciate him with the new country placed under his pro- 
tection. 

The history of Genoa during the Dark Ages is the 
same as that of the other Italian communes which 
succeeded in wresting from contending princes and 
barons charters which created them free cities- 
Rivaling proud Venice in the East, Genoa secured 
ports and commercial privileges in the Levant; she 
even built fortresses on the Black Sea, and on the 
banks of the Euphrates. Her commercial prosperity 
is the more remarkable because her citizens, unlike the 
Venetians, had rarely peace within her walls. She 
took part in all the Guelph and Ghibelline disputes, 
was sometimes the ally of the pope and sometimes of 
the emperor. She completely crushed the Pisans in 
1288 at the battle of Meloria, and she was very near 
doing the same thing by the Venetians, when she 
defeated them in the battle of Chioggia in 1380. But 
no state in Italy was so torn with factions as Genoa. 
In the battle of Meloria the Pisans were deserted 
by their ally. Count Ugolino della Gheradesca, who 
afterward fell into the hands of the Genoese, and was 
imprisoned in the Tower of Famine. His story has 
been told by Dante, and has created great sympathy 
for him, among innumerable readers of the Divina 
Commedia — a sympathy which the real Count Ugolino 
little deserved. Pisa was ruined by the Genoese vic- 
tory at Meloria, and her port destroyed. She became 
an inland town, instead of a commercial city. 

The ship-masters of Genoa were not scrupulous in 
matters of piracy. In early days they stole from cer- 
tain monks of Myrrha the bones of John the Baptist 



1 68 The Italian Republics 

and brought them home in several ships, not daring 
to trust so precious a treasure to the fortunes of one 
vessel. The bones were received in Genoa with as 
much enthusiasm and delight as those of St. Mark had 
been in the rival city. 

The greatest institution in Genoa was, perhaps, its 
bank, the Bank of St. George, which did business for 
all Europe, and may be said to have held in the Mid- 
dle Ages much the same position as the Bank of Eng- 
land in modern times. 

The chief families in Genoa were Fieschi, Doria, 
Spinola, and Grimaldi. In after years it was claimed 
that the name of Buonaparti was on their roll of honor. 
It was a city much visited by men of letters. Pe- 
trarch, after his expulsion from Florence, took service 
with the Genoese, and was entrusted with several 
important missions. Dante was there, and so was 
Chaucer. Possibly it was in Genoa that the latter 
learned to speak of Dante as "the great poet of Italic. ' ' 

But the greatest glory of both Venice and Genoa 
in those days comes from their seamen and their 
travelers. 

Marco Polo, who was born in 1254, and died in 
1324, was a Venetian. He was a member of a noble 
and w^ell-known family. His father and uncle were 
also great travelers, who visited China, the Crimea, 
and a variety of Eastern kingdoms about the middle of 
the thirteenth century. Marco, who was in his boy- 
hood while they were on this journey, accompanied 
his father and uncle when they set out a second time 
to the East. He was then eighteen. The object of 
these travelers was to spy the land, and see what were 



The Maritime Republics 169 

the prospects for the introduction of Christianity into 
Chinese Tartary. The elder Polos had come home 
to report to the pope, but there was then no pope at 
Rome to receive them. It was a time of interregnum, 
neither was there any pope when they set out upon 
their second journey The great khan had asked for 
one hundred Christian teachers, but they could only 
be supplied at that time with two Dominicans, who 
became disheartened and turned back soon after reach- 
ing Palestine. From Bagdad and the Persian Gulf, 
where they failed to procure shipping for China, they 
struck northward and followed very much the track of 
the Trans-Caspian railroad, by Yarkand and Khotan, 
into southern China. Modern travelers have traced 
and illustrated their route. The great khan received 
them favorably at what was apparently his new city of 
Peking (Cambabuc). He took a great fancy to young 
Marco, who applied himself diligently to the study of 
the languages in his kingdom. A French traveler has 
recently discovered that in 1277 a certain Polo was 
attached to the Imperial Council. In missions for the 
khan, and as his agent, Marco traveled into various 
parts of China, and had many facts of interest to 
relate to his master when he returned to court, for the 
khan was insatiable for tales of adventure and travel. 
When Kablai Khan died, his successor was desirous 
to secure a wife from Mongolia. The ambassadors 
deputed for this mission, begged that the Venetian 
traveler might accompany them. The embassy secured 
a princess who was, as Marco describes her, ''^ moult bele 
dame, et avenant.'' After this the three Polos returned 
home by way of Persia, and we next hear of Marco as 



lyo The Italian Republics 

gentleman commander on board one of the galle3^s 
under Dandolo's command, bound to attack the fleet 
of Genoa. 

In this engagement the Genoese were victorious, 
and Marco Polo, with seven thousand other captives, 
was carried to Genoa. In prison he fell in with a man 
who wanted to write down his wonderful adventures, 
and the composition of this book greatly relieved the 
tedium of their captivity. 

Marco married and left daughters. He died about 
1325, at the age of seventy, and was buried in a tomb 
that, with filial care, he had erected for his father. 

Toward the end of the fourteenth century, Josefa 
Barbaro, a Venetian noble, whose family palace still 
stands on the Grand Canal, was sent on a mission to 
the Court of Persia; he had interesting adventures of 
which the records still exist, but they are not widely 
known like the travels of Marco Polo. 

Christopher Columbus, born in 1434 or 1435, was 
son of a wool-comber in Genoa. His father after- 
ward moved his business to Savona, and lived until his 
son returned from the West Indies. Christopher was 
his eldest son, and was sent to the University of 
Pavia. He returned home when his college course 
was finished, and for a while assisted his father, but 
his wish was to be a sailor. V*^e know little of his 
early voyages, but he says of them himself, "Wher- 
ever a ship can sail I have sailed." 



The Maritime Republics 171 



SUMMARY AND QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

i 

Venice founded in 421; the bride of the Adriatic; Doge 
Orseolo and Dalmatian pirates, looi. The doge and the 
Church of St. Mark; bones of the saint, 823. Freedom and 
commercial power of Venice; influence in the crusades; jeal- 
ousy of Pisa. Venice joins the League of Lombardy; curtails 
the power of the doge, 1171; tendency to oligarchy. The 
fourth crusade, 1202; fall of Constantinople; Dandolo declines 
to be Greek emperor. Connection of Venice with the cities of 
the mainland. The tragedy of Faliero. Venice holds Cyprus, 
1487-1567, and Crete for 400 years; oppresses the islanders and 
introduces the inquisition. Genoa; rival of Pisa, a crusading 
city, turbulent home government, center of commerce and 
travel; visited by men of letters. Imprisons Marco Polo. 
Christopher Columbus. 

I. How and why was Venice founded? 2. What was the 
origin of the ceremonial of the " Espousal of the Sea"? 3. 
Why were the Venetians free when the rest of Italy was 
enslaved? 4. What was the position of the doge? 5. What 
is the story of [the Venetian capture of St. Mark? 6. How was 
the power of Venice felt in the crusades? 7. How did she 
incur the ill will of the Greek emperor and of Pisa? 8. What 
relation had Venice to the League of Lombardy? 9. How did 
the Greek emperor entrap the Venetians in 1171? 10. What 
effect had this on the home government? 11. Describe the 
meeting of Pope Alexander and Emperor Frederick Barbarossa 
in Venice. 12. How was Venice induced to take part in the 
Fourth Crusade? 13. What was the real object of this crusade? 
14. Describe the struggle over Constantinople. 15. What in- 
fluence had these events upon Venice? 16. How was Venice 
involved in the affairs of other cities of Italy? 17. What is the 
tragic story of Faliero? 18. When were Cyprus and Crete 
under Venetian influence? ig. What connection had Genoa 
with the crusades? 20. Describe her various relations with 
Pisa. 21. How did she rival Venice in her devotion to saints? 
22. What literary associations has the city? 23. What was 



172 The Italian Republics 

true of her internal history? 24. Describe the life of Marco 
Polo. 25. What were the early events in the life of Christopher 
Columbus? 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The Story of Venice. Weil. 
The Stones of Venice. Rusk in. 
Makers of Venice. Mrs. Oliphant. 
Ve?tice. A. J. C. Hare. 
Venice. Horatio F. Brown. 
Genoa. Theodore Bent. 



CHAPTER VII 

ANARCHY AND DESOLATION IN THE CITIES OF 
LOMBARDY — SIR JOHN HAWKWOOD — GIAN 
GALEAZZO VISCONTI 

The latter part of the fourteenth century in Italy 
was marked by repeated visitations of the plague, and 
by numerous bands of free companies (or hired sol- 
diers), whose captains, having lost employment in 
France and England, persuaded their men to follow 
them to make war on the whole world, and divide 
among themselves the pay and booty. 

The institution of captain of the*people in the great 
towns had now given place to the rule of six independ- 
ent princes in Lombardy. The Visconti were lords 
of Milan; the marquis of Montferrat ruled in the Pied- 
montese mountains, the Delia Scala family in Verona, 
the Estes in Ferrara, Gonzaga in Mantua, and Carrara 
in Padua. The weaker princes made a league against 
the Visconti, taking into their service a formidable 
association of German mercenaries called "the Great 
Company," which took their pay, but spreading them- 
selves over the country pillaged and outraged friend 
and foe. When the League could no longer afford to 
pay the "Great Company," it entered into the service 
of the Siennese, who let it loose upon Perugia. But 
the Florentines refused to permit these robbers to en- 
ter Tuscany. They closed the passes of the Apennines, 

173 



174 The Italian Republics 

and armed the mountaineers, thereby bringing down 
upon themselves the wrath of the free companies, who 
determined, as they said, to pillage those rich mer- 
chants whom they held to be unwarlike and unable to 
defend themselves. The Florentines assembled a 
purely Italian army and the "Great Company," very 
much to its amazement, found itself outgeneraled at 
every point, and never could get over the Florentine 
frontier. 

Florence indeed had seen troubled days during the 
ten years that succeeded the death of Dante. Like 
other cities of the Lombard League, she had grown 
weary of her own misgovernment, and looked about 
her for some valiant foreigner, whom she could make 
her ruler. In 1326, there had come to Florence, on 
his way from Naples to France, a young man named 
Gaultier de Brienne, calling himself duke of Athens. 
His father, an adventurer, had held that title under 
several of the Greek emperors, but it had been re- 
voked. Gaultier was brave, and very clever. The 
Florentines took a fancy to him. They protested that 
they should never have met misfortune had he been at 
the head of their affairs. On August i, 1342, they 
obliged their signoria to name him captain of the peo- 
ple; that is, their chief judge and head of their army. 

The French adventurer had little idea of govern- 
ment except that it was good policy to cut off the 
heads of his enemies. The Florentines bore with him 
ten months, during which, when his attention was not 
occupied by inflicting torture or ordering executions, 
he was intriguing to get himself named captain in 
other Lombard cities. "He united," says Sismondi, 



Anarchy and Desolation 175 

"all the qualities that Machiavelli, one hundred and 
sixty years later, enumerated as necessary to a prince, 
the founder of a despotism. Courageous, dissem- 
bling, patient, clear-sighted, and perfidious, he knew 
neither respect nor pity, he was bound by no affection, 
and no principle." In ten months he drew from 
the treasury of the republic three hundred thousand 
golden florins, which he sent either to France or Naples. 
His rule made the Florentines of all parties and of all 
classes unite against him in a three-branched conspir- 
acy. He became more and more apprehensive. He 
convoked three hundred of the most conspicuous citi- 
zens of Florence to confer with him in his palace, and 
had given orders to have every one of them killed. 
But the mass of the citizens had admirably arranged 
their plans. Suddenly the streets of Florence, which 
had remained perfectly quiet, each man going about 
his own affairs, resounded with the cry to arms. 
Popolo! Popolo! Liberia! 

In a moment from the housetops poured down a 
shower of stones on the duke's cavalry stationed in 
the streets. Chains that had been made ready blocked 
all passages. The citizens, well armed, marched on the 
palace. The duke, with some German soldiers, tried 
to defend himself. He might have held out, but they 
had no provisions. He escaped and was concealed by 
the bishop of Florence, who after six days sent him 
out of the city with his cavalry, to whom he owed con- 
siderable pay. With them he reached Venice, and 
there embarked by stealth for Naples, and there he 
hoped to avoid paying his men, who though robbers 
and murderers, had bravely stood by him. 



176 The Italian Republics 

The most distinguished of the coiidottiere (mercenary 
leaders in Italy in those days) was Sir John Hawkwood, 
an Englishman. He was the son of a man of some 
property in Essex near Colchester, and when about 
twenty years of age, he went to France, in 1343; 
whether voluntarily or drafted into the military service 
of King Edward III., is not known. He distinguished 
himself, however, at the battle of Poitiers, under the 
Black Prince, and was knighted by King Edward. 

After the Peace of Bretigny was signed in 1360, he 
and many other soldiers of fortune, unwilling to return 
to quiet life, formed themselves into bands of free 
companies. They were ready to hire themselves to such 
sovereigns or states as would employ them. They 
were found very serviceable in harrying the lands of 
any enemy of the state or prince who paid them for 
their services, and their presence was considered so 
disastrous that they were often paid to keep out of 
some territory that they threatened to enter not as 
enemies but as friends. They were robbers and plun- 
derers by profession, and, if opportunity presented 
itself, were ready to enrich themselves at the expense 
of friend or foe. 

In 1365 the four principal bands roving about Italy 
in search of plunder and employment were the Eng- 
lish under Sir John Hawkwood ; the Germans under 
two brothers, Lucius and Eberhard Landau ; the Bre- 
tons; and somewhat later a band of Germans, called 
the Great Company. Of these the only leader who 
ever showed compassion, or ever kept faith with his 
employers, was Sir John Hawkwood — yet even he was 
forced by the exigencies of his situation to take part 



Anarchy and Desolation 177 

in the awful massacre of Cesara, when under orders 
from the pope's legate (afterward Pope Clement VII.) 
more than four thousand unresisting citizens, their 
wives and children, were murdered in cold blood by 
troops wintering in Cesara, a friendly city. This 
slaughter filled all Europe with horror, and did much 
to weaken the influence of prelates among the popu- 
lation. 

In 1377 Sir John Hawkwood, disgusted with the 
massacre of Cesara, and tempted by great offers made 
him by the League of Lombardy, took service for the 
Florentines, who before that time had given him 
mighty bribes to keep out of their country. He had 
for some years been, in some irregular way, attached to 
the service of Barnabo Visconti, then ruler in Milan, 
who gave to him his beautiful daughter, Donnina, and 
the nuptials were celebrated at Milan with great lavish- 
ness of gifts and brilliant ceremonies. Sir John 
acquired great wealth besides castles and lands in 
Romagna. Florence at one time paid him and his 
company one hundred and thirty thousand florins not 
to set foot for three months in their territory. 

After gaining many victories for Florence, Sir John, 
in his old age, lived in a villa in the outskirts of that 
city. At his death Florence gave him a most magnifi- 
cent funeral, and his picture in fresco was painted on 
the walls of the cathedral. 

After Florence had got rid of the duke of Athens, 
she was continually guarding against the ambition of 
the Visconti, who aimed at the subjugation of all 
Italy. They had contrived to acquire Bologna, and 
to make alliances with the Ghibelline lords in the 



178 The Italian Republics 

Apennines, but the growing power of Gian Galeazzo 
Visconti made Florence apprehensive, for Florentines 
knew that no Visconti could be bound by a pledge. 

Suddenly, without any declaration of war, an army 
commanded by one of the Visconti was marched into 
Tuscany. Behind walls the Tuscans could always 
make a stubborn fight, and the first little town besieged 
made so formidable a resistance that the Milanese army 
at length moved away. 

The history of Italy during the last years of the 
fourteenth century is one miserable, continuous strug- 
gle for power on the one part, on the other to find 
means of escaping from under it. 

The popes, after seventy years of exile, came back 
from Avignon in 1377. The pontiff who returned was 
Gregory XI. By this time all parties were weary of 
war. What stood in the way of peace was the pro- 
found distrust inspired by the Visconti. 

Gregory XI. died in 1378. A conclave was called 
to make a new pope. The Romans insisted it could 
meet only in their city. Such cardinals as they could 
assemble there elected Urban VI. He was unsatisfac- 
tory even to his electors, who declared the election 
void, and elected another pope, Clement VII., a cruel, 
violent man, who had urged and promoted the terrible 
massacre two years before, while he was papal legate 
at Cesara. 

Clement transferred his papal court to Naples, but 
afterward decided to return to Avignon. Urban VI., 
in Rome, treated Clement and all the cardinals who 
had elected him, as schismatics, and so the fierce dis- 
pute rolled on. Urban died in Genoa, having made 



Anarchy and Desolation 179 

himself hateful to the Romans who had promoted 
him. 

Florence was now divided into two factions, no 
longer Bianchi and Neri, or Guelphs and Ghibellines, 
but into the class of citizens who carried on the gov- 
ernment, and the democracy whom they excluded. A 
supreme ruler seemed the only remedy. Four families 
were prominent, the Scali, the Strozzi, the Alberti, 
and the Medici. Up to those days the latter family 
had never taken a prominent place in Florence, their 
name had been hardly known to their fellow citizens, 
but within a few years the family had come into notice 
by reason of its great wealth. 

There was no union between the leading aristocratic 
families in Florence. As formerly the Guelphs had 
split into Bianchi and Neri, so now the nobility divided 
under two leaders, the Albizzi and the Ricci. In a 
factional dispute, in the summer of 1378, Silvestro de' 
Medici, who had been made by lot gonfaloner (stan- 
dard bearer or chief ruler), appealed to the people to 
support him and his friends against the rising oli- 
garchy, which, under pretense of maintaining the 
ancient Guelph party in its purity, wanted to exclude 
from power all those whose ancestors had been Ghibel- 
lines, and now encouraged division in a republic to 
which union was necessary. The measure proposed 
by Silvestro de' Medici passed by an immense majority. 

But this victory, which was considered a democratic 
triumph, led to further demands on the people's part, 
and much rioting and disorder; then a workman, 
Michael Lando, barefooted and half dead, came for- 
ward suddenly, carrying in his hand the gonfalon of 



i8o The Italian Republics 

the state, which he had snatched up in the palace of the 
podesta. The people hailed him as their chief, and 
he at once restored order. His government was ex- 
cellent, but it lasted only a short time. Florence 
blushed to think that she had entrusted power to a 
man of his class, and at the next opportunity placed 
Silvestro de' Medici and two other aristocrats at the 
head of the government. The reforms of Michael 
Lando were set aside and he himself, with many of his 
followers, was sent into exile. 

In Florence, and in other c'ties, the monied class 
had now become aristocrats. They disputed prece- 
dence, social and political, with the more ancient 
families, and in general it was the aristocracy of 
wealth that succeeded in obtaining power. 

It was about the time of these troubles in Florence 
that the great naval battle of Chiogga, which has been 
already alluded to, took place between the Genoese 
and the Venetians, On the first day of January, 1380, 
the Genoese admiral, Carlo Zeno, arrived off the 
lagoons, with a fleet he had collected in the Eastern 
seas. His project was to blockade Venice, cutting 
her off from the Adriatic, by holding the canals and 
waterways which communicated with the open water. 
Chiogga was on one of the islands in the lagoons, and 
was used by the Venetians as a sort of naval station. 
But instead of waiting to be besieged, the Venetians 
besieged their besiegers. They shut up the forty-eight 
galleys, and fourteen thousand Genoese sailors (or 
soldiers) in the waters round Chiogga. There their 
supplies fell short. In vain the lord of Padua, from 
the mainland, made great efforts to succor them. In 



Anarchy and Desolation i8i 

vain Genoa sent a new fleet to the Adriatic to their 
assistance. After destroying their galleys and making 
vain attempts to get off in open boats to the fleet that 
lay outside awaiting them, the Genoese, after six 
months of siege, surrendered at discretion. It was 
"a glorious victory," won without a battle, and it led 
to a treaty of peace between the two rival republics. 

In the last years of the century the terror in which 
the house of Visconti, lords of Milan, had held Flor- 
ence and the other Italian republics, had somewhat 
subsided. The Visconti were at strife among them- 
selves. At length a second Galeazzo, by treachery 
and murder, despoiled his uncle, Bernabo, seized the 
reins of power, and before the close of the century all 
Lombardy had submitted to him. "False and pitiless, 
he joined to immeasurable ambition a genius for enter- 
prise, and to immovable constancy a personal timidity 
that he did not care to conceal. No prince ever em- 
ployed so many soldiers to guard his palace, or took 
such multiplied precautions to insure his safety. But 
the vices of tyranny had not weakened his ability; he 
employed his immense wealth without prodigality. 
His soldiers were always well paid, and the free com- 
panies scattered throughout Italy were prompt to 
return to his service whenever he might summon 
them." 

This prince, known as Gian Galeazzo Visconti to 
distinguish him from the Galeazzo who, twenty years 
before, had employed the services of Sir John Hawk- 
wood, having pushed the frontier of his principality of 
Milan almost up to the lagoons, planned an attack on 
Venice. 



1 82 The Italian Republics 

The Florentines, dreading the encroachments of 
Milan, began open war against that city and its tyrant, 
but discouraged by a serious reverse inflicted by the 
"White Band" of young nobles, under their leader, 
Giacomo del Verme, Milan made peace. But the 
Florentines did not expect it to last long. They 
well knew the perfidy of Gian Galeazzo, who had 
purchased from a traitor and usurper the city of Pisa 
in 1399. He also about the same time gained posses- 
sion of Perugia. The Florentines were thus deprived 
of all possible allies in Northern Italy, except the 
maritime republics, Venice and Genoa. 

Gian Galeazzo continued his career of successful 
perfidy until September 3, 1402, when he was carried 
off by the plague, which two years before had entered 
Tuscany and deprived the free states of their remain- 
ing vigor. In Florence it swept off all the magis- 
trates on whose prudence and courage the citizens 
relied. It did the same thing in Lucca and Bologna. 
Any adventurer who chose to put himself forward 
could now, with impunity, seize the government of 
those cities. 

The Florentines, having no longer communication 
with the sea by way of Sienna, Pisa, Lucca, and Bo- 
logna, which had given themselves up to low adven- 
turers who sold them to Galeazzo, saw the sources of 
her wealth and commerce on the point of drying up. 
Never had Florence been in more imminent danger, 
when the plague, which had so greatly augmented her 
calamities, brought her deliverance by carrying off 
the tyrant of Milan in spite of all the precautions he 
had taken to avoid infection. 



Anarchy and Desolation 183 



SUMMARY AND QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

The plague and the condottieri in Italy. The six inde- 
pendent princes of Lombardy; warfare by weaker princes in 
league with "the Great Company." Florence and "the Duke 
of Athens," 1326. Sir John Hawkwood, with the English at 
Poitiers; the massacre at Cesara; marries daughter of Barnabo 
Visconti of Milan; acquires great wealth, castles and lands in 
Romagna. Florence struggles with the Visconti. The popes 
return from Avignon. Charles of Durazzo becomes king of 
Naples. Internal struggles in Florence, the Scali, Strozzi, 
Alberti, and Medici; two factions. Silvestro de' Medici and 
Michael Lando. Aristocracy of wealth. 1380, Venice and 
Genoa at Chioggia. Gian Galeazzo Visconti tyrannizes over 
Lombardy. 

I. What two calamities visited Italy in the last part of the 
fourteenth century? 2. What six independent princes ruled in 
Lombardy? 3. How did the weaker princes prey upon their 
neighbors? 4. Describe the experience of Florence with 
Gaultier, Duke of Athens. 5. What four bands of mercenaries 
terrorized Italy in and about 1365? 6. What struggle between 
Florence and the Visconti marked this time? 7. What state 
of confusion marked the return of the popes from Avignon? 
8. Into whose hands did the crown of Naples pass? 9. What 
factions were being felt in Florence at this time? 10. What 
appeal to the people was made by Silvestro de' Medici? 11. 
How was he set aside and then reinstated? 12. Describe the 
siege of Chioggia. 13. Describe the struggle of Florence 
against Gian Galeazzo Visconti. 14. Describe the schism 
which arose in the Church. 15. How did the plague both 
scourge and liberate the people. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Sir John Hawkwood. Leader Scott. 
Italy: Florence a7id Venice. Taine. 
The Renaissance in Italy. J. A. Symonds. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE REVIVAL OF LETTERS — THE RISE OF THE 
MEDICI 

The fifteenth century was signalized in Europe by 
what is called the Renaissance, the rebirth of letters. 
The art of printing was discovered, poets had appeared 
in many countries, and men's minds had been set 
thinking about ecclesiastical abuses, and the relations 
of God the Father to His children, and what rule the 
church ought to establish over men. 

Already a love of architecture had beautified the 
Italian cities. The spirit of Dante had awakened a 
love for poetry. Galeazzo \'isconti had founded a 
professorship for the study of the Diviiia Commedia, 
Petrarch had written sonnets. Boccaccio had written 
tales, Giotto had adorned churches. During the first 
years of the fifteenth century Pulci, Boiardo, Ariosto, 
and Tasso, all of them destined to be great poets, were 
little boys, but they grew up amidst an environment 
which no doubt turned their minds to poetry. Yet 
one wonders how anything "pure, lovely, and of good 
report" could have taken root in times, when, even in 
a country so fertile in tyrants as Italy, never was power 
so stained by crimes. 

The policy of Venice was purely selfish. Her Coun- 
cil of Ten took only self-interest for their guide. 
Italian political virtue was to be found only in Flor- 

184 



The Revival of Letters 185 

ence. There the citizens always approved measures 
that they held to be just, able, and generous, 
measures that might promote intelligence and civili- 
zation. 

In three years after the death of Gian Galeazzo 
(during the regency of Catherine, his wicked wife, who 
during her son's minority, claimed rule over his duchy) 
Sienna, Perugia, and Bologna threw off the Viscontis' 
yoke, and Florence would have recovered her route to 
the sea and her commercial advantages, if Pisa had 
not remained in the hands of a Visconti. She had 
been given to one of Gian Galeazzo's natural sons. 
There was, however, a French garrison in the citadel. 
The general in command of it, for treachery was the 
fashion of the day, offered to sell it to the Florentines 
for four hundred thousand florins. The Pisans dis- 
covered the plot, and took possession of their city, but 
Boucicault, the French general, retained possession of 
the citadel and other strongholds. These he offered 
to sell the Florentines for two hundred and sixty 
thousand florins, which they stipulated he was to 
divide with the young Visconti. To escape from this 
engagement Boucicault invented a pretext, and be- 
headed the lad. But the Florentines did not get easy 
possession of their purchase. The Pisans spent all 
their wealth to buy the services of condottieri. They 
lost, however, all their fortresses and all their terri- 
tory, and their city was at last delivered up by their 
general who, for fifty thousand florins, agreed to open 
its gates to the enemy. 

The victorious Florentines tried to treat the Pisans 
with generosity, but nothing would reconcile the citi- 



1 86 The Italian Republics 

z^ns to the loss of their independence. The most 
ancient and wealthy families moved to Lucca, Sar- 
dinia, and Sicil}^ The young men almost all engaged 
in companies of adventure, hoping to find in camp- 
life an independence which they could no longer hope 
for in their own land. Pisa, in losing its liberty, lost 
its commerce, its population, and every remnant of 
prosperity which had remained to it after its port had 
been blocked up by the Genoese. 

For twenty-seven years there had been a schism in 
the church; a pope and an anti-pope, one holding his 
court in Rome, the other (for the second time) in 
Avignon. All men and all princes were anxious to 
put an end to this state of affairs. The king of France 
besieged the pope in Avignon to compel him to make 
peace. He agreed at last to abdicate, but his rival, 
Gregory XII., whom it was stipulated was to abdicate 
at the same time, refused. At last the cardinals, losing 
all patience, called together an ecumenical council, 
deposed both popes, and elected Alexander V. Still 
the deposed pontiffs would not submit. One retired 
to Aragon, the other to Sicily. Then there were three 
popes in the church, and all over Europe reigned 
schism and confusion. 

Ladislaus, king of Naples, son of Charles of Du- 
razzo, who had succeeded the infamous Joanna, took 
advantage of this schism to invade the States of the 
Church, and from 1399 to 1408 war broke out over 
Southern Italy as fiercely as it had been raging in 
Lombardy. Ladislaus took Rome, and then pro- 
ceeded to conquer Perugia, Sienna, and other cities in 
the alliance with Florence. In this extremity the 



The Revival of Letters 187 

Florentines turned for assistance to Louis of Anjou, 
whom Charles of Durazzo had dispossessed of the 
crown of Sicily, while at the same time they secured 
the assistance of Braccio, one of two famous Italian 
soldiers of fortune, to whom the scattered bands of 
free companions readily attached themselves. The 
other commander was Sforza Attendolo, a peasant of 
Romagna. Braccio was distinguished for his impetu- 
ous valor, Sforza for his prudence, coolness, and 
steadiness. They had been comrades when they first 
embraced war as their profession, but now they were 
leaders of rival bands, almost invariably opposed to 
each other. 

Braccio and the Florentines took Rome in 1410, 
and then Florence offered Ladislaus peace, which he 
eagerly accepted, but like nearly all other Italians of 
that day in his position, he broke its terms as soon 
as his army had had time to rest, and the war began 
again. 

Ladislaus was so well supported that the Floren- 
tines, discouraged by the successes of his captain, 
Sforza, had begun to lose heart, when Ladislaus died. 
His sister. Queen Joanna II., a woman no better than 
Joanna I., succeeded him, and she and her lovers 
before long ruined the kingdom of Naples, and then 
Florence was threatened by a new enemy, Filippo 
Maria Visconti, brother of Gian Maria, son of Gian 
Galeazzo, and third duke of Milan. Filippo attached 
Facino Cane, a celebrated cojidottiere^ to his service 
by marrying his daughter, and then set about recover- 
ing all the dependencies which had belonged to the do- 
minions of his father. He was so ugly that he could 



1 88 The Italian Republics 

not bear to be looked at, and was so timid that he 
must have rendered his life worthless by his precau- 
tions to preserve it. He w^as perfidious and without 
pity for his subjects. He seemed no less alarmed at 
the success of his own generals than at that of his 
enemies. He trusted no one. He would have ruined 
Lombardy if the fertility of that rich province had not 
exceeded his powers of mischief. 

By chance he witnessed the splendid courage of 
Francesco Carmagnola, a Piedmontese adventurer, and 
made him his general. The victories of Carmagnola 
were brilliant, and he was a man of noble character. 
All Lombardy submitted to him, even the republic of 
Genoa. Then the armies of Filippo Maria were turned 
against the pope in Romagna and Tuscany. 

Two princes in Naples, where one of them, Alfonso 
the Magnanimous of Aragon, had been named by 
Queen Joanna as her heir, quarreled after her death 
for the inheritance. The Florentines sided with 
Alfonso, who placed Braccio at the head of his army, 
while the duke of Milan, in alliance with Louis of 
Anjou, the other pretender, took Sforza for his gen- 
eral. In 1424 Sforza was drowned while crossing a 
river, and six months after Braccio was mortally 
wounded. Their bands elected new commanders, and 
kept up their reputation. 

The army of Filippo Maria Visconti continued to 
advance, and Florence in despair sent an embassy to 
Venice. "You reproach us," said the ambassador, 
"for not having opposed Filippo Maria in time, and 
you say we have made him duke of Milan and master 
of Genoa. You, if you do not stand by us, will make 



The Revival of Letters 189 

him king of Italy. AVe, in our turn, if we must sub- 
mit, will make him emperor." 

It was at this juncture that Francesco Carmagnola 
arrived in Venice. He had been too successful in the 
service of his suspicious master, who disgraced him 
and deprived him of his employment without any 
reason. Carmagnola then withdrew to Piedmont, his 
native country. His wife and children were arrested 
and his property confiscated. He fled for his life 
through Germany to Venice and there told the council 
of the designs his late master harbored against them. 
This secret determined the Venetians and their doge, 
Francesco Foscari, to oppose the rising ambition of 
the Milanese ruler. A league was formed against him 
of powerful states and some foreign princes. War was 
declared (1426) and Carmagnola was placed at the 
head of the allied army. His exploits were most 
brilliant, but he incurred the jealous displeasure of 
the Venetians by generously releasing young Sforza, 
Piccinino, and some other illustrious captains whom 
he had taken prisoner. Later in his campaign, in 1431, 
fortune turned against him. 

The senate of Venice made it a rule never to em- 
ploy its citizens as soldiers, but to hire foreigners to 
fight; it also made it a rule to treat the generals and 
officers of mercenary troops with great rigor. The 
council resolved on the punishment of the unsuccess- 
ful Carmagnola, but they received him on his return 
to Venice with the highest honors. They escorted 
him to the senate chamber, encouraged him to address 
them, and his speech was applauded. But as day 
began to close, and the chamber grew dark, soldiers 



190 The Italian Republics 

of the police came stealthily in, flung themselves upon 
the general, bound him and dragged him to the dun- 
geons. Twenty days after his arrest he was brought 
forth, with his mouth gagged lest he should address 
the people. He was placed between two columns on 
the Great Square of St. Mark and there beheaded, an 
object lesson to the people of Venice that the senate 
meant to rule them by terror. 

We turn now to Florence and to the rise of the 
Medici. We have mentioned Silvestro de' Medici, but 
history records little more about him. The first very 
illustrious member of the house was Cosimo, born in 
1389; he was a son of the founder of the family Gio- 
vanni de' Medici. This good old man, upon his 
deathbed, in 1428, exhorted his two sons, Cosimo and 
Lorenzo, to follow his example, that they might live 
in their native place honored and respected. "Nothing 
affords me more pleasure," he said, "than the reflec- 
tion that my conduct has given offense to no one; but 
that on the contrary I have endeavored to serve all 
persons to the best of my ability." 

The republic of Florence stood fourth among the 
states of Italy in wealth and importance. More gener- 
ous than Venice, it had frequently endangered itself 
in wars which exposed it to invasion. Less prudent 
in its internal administration, it had more than once 
experienced the convulsions of contending factions, 
and sometimiCS even those of temporary tyranny. On 
the other side, the Florentines owed to the nature of 
their government a degree of energy, activity, and 
intelligence, which enabled them rapidly to repair 
their losses. 



The Revival of Letters 191 

Cosimo de' Medici, even before his father's death, 
had served the state in some important offices, he had 
traveled to other cities, he had shown a deep inter- 
est in old Greek manuscripts and in Greek philosophy, 
both of which were just beginning to be appreciated 
in Italy, which owed its first interest in the Greek 
language and Greek poetry to Boccaccio. 

The leader of the aristocracy of Florence in 1433 
was Rinaldo degli Aloizzi. He was impetuous, arro- 
gant, jealous, and impatient of all opposition. He 
fancied he saw a rival in the wealthy Cosimo, whose 
commercial affairs gave him great influence in other 
cities, and to a certain extent connected him with all 
parts of the world. 

Rinaldo chose to consider Cosimo an ambitious 
democrat. He knew him to be no friend of the policy 
that had governed the affairs of Florence under the 
Albizzi; he knew that he thought the safety of the 
state had been endangered by imprudent wars, and 
that her finances had been injured by paying merce- 
nary troops, and by the robberies of her commissaries. 
Cosimo had taken no open part against the govern- 
ment. Nevertheless Rinaldo had him arrested as a 
state criminal. Four days he remained in a dungeon, 
expecting death by poison or by violence. Later, 
owing to the pressure of public opinion, the rigor of 
his imprisonment was relaxed, but with his brother, 
Lorenzo, and his friends, he was sent into exile. 
Everywhere he went he was received with honor and 
hospitality, as a leading patron of learning and of art. 

A year after this exile the same fate fell on Rinaldo 
degli Albizzi, who revenged himself on Florence by 



igi The Italian Republics 

going to the court of her enemy, the duke of Milan, 
and persuading him to make war upon his native city. 
Filippo Maria Visconti listened to his suggestions. He 
placed Nicolo Piccinino at the head of his forces, 
while Florence employed Francesco Sforza, son and 
successor of the first captain of that name. 

Francesco Sforza was an intimate friend of Cosimo 
de' Medici. When Filippo Maria made peace with the 
Florentines, after a short campaign in 1441, he deemed 
it good policy to give Bianca, his natural daughter, 
in marriage to Francesco Sforza, his enemy's success- 
ful general, who in a subsequent campaign fought for 
the duke of Milan, his father-in-law. In August, 1447, 
Filippo Maria Visconti died, leaving no male heirs. 
The citizens of Milan then asserted their former inde- 
pendence and claimed the right to choose a captain of 
the people. Their choice fell upon Francesco Sforza, 
who at the head of his brilliant band of mercenary 
soldiers was at hand. 

Francesco was one of the most distinguished cap- 
tains of his age, and had had a reputation not only for 
frankness and liberality but for truth and generosity. 
"But it is not in the trade of captains of adventure 
that men can be formed to true honor." Francesco, 
raised to power, showed himself perfidious even to 
some of his own lieutenants, and by treachery earned 
the admiration and approval of Louis XL, of France. 
A sharp struggle with the Venetians resulted in a 
treaty with that city, by which he engaged to restore 
certain towns on condition that they would aid him in 
making a complete conquest of Milan, and all the 
dominions of the late Filippo Maria. 



The Revival of Letters 193 

The Milanese were furiously angry, but other con- 
dottieri leaders, and most of the cities subject to Milan 
in Lombardy, favored the ambition of Sforza. He 
soon had possession of all the Milanese territory, 
though Milan itself held out against him. Its richest 
citizens, placing their fortunes at the command of 
the state, armed themselves, and as far as they could, 
the other defenders, with fire-locks, then a recent in- 
vention w^hich proved a great terror to cavalry. The 
gates of Milan were, however, opened to Sforza in 
February, 1450, and the citizens proclaimed him duke 
of Milan. 

In Rome a few years had made important changes. 
Up to this time, the magistrates of the city in their 
oaths, had always pledged themselves to protect the 
pope, never to take him as their ruler. The removal 
of the court to Avignon, and the schism which fol- 
lowed, gave Rome over to anarchy, and a strong ruler 
seemed its only hope. The pope, in 1450, was Nicho- 
las v., a Florentine very intimate with Cosimo de' 
Medici. He, like his friend, had been devoted to 
learning, philosophy, and ancient literature, and after 
he became pope he showed some zeal for collections 
of ancient manuscripts and for translations from 
Greek writers, but he was resolved to put down the 
democratic spirit in the Eternal City. He put all 
offices into the hands of prelates, whom he himself 
appointed. Those who entered into controversy with 
the pope were exiled or executed, and the last spark 
of liberty in Rome was extinguished in blood. 

In 1453 Constantinople was taken by the Turks and 
a flood of great learning poured over Europe. All 



194 The Italian Republics 

Christendom became interested in the Greek exiles 
and learned men. It was the beginning of that period 
called the Renaissance, the rebirth of men's interest in 
letters, and the Renaissance led to printing, and to 
the study of the Scriptures; the study of the Scrip- 
tures to the Reformation, and thence to all we know 
as modern Europe, with its annex, which, in 1453, had 
been never thought of — the civilization of a new world. 

Cosimo de' Medici died in Florence August i, 1464, 
in his seventy-fifth year. He held no public office, 
but his influence, during thirty years, had completely 
allayed the fermentation that had formerly agitated 
his native city. The rulers of Florence were chosen 
in the same way as before, invested with the same 
powers, subject to the same laws. Florence was full 
of merchant princes, who built splendid palaces, 
adorned churches, and their fellow citizens were proud 
of them. Florence had also a great statesman, the 
close friend of Cosimo de' Medici, Neri Capponi. He 
died, however, in 1455. Luca Pitti, the man who 
built the splendid Pitti palace in Florence, was ambi- 
tious of succeeding to the place so long occupied by 
Cosimo, but he made the construction of his palaces a 
means for assembling the discontented part of the 
population round him. He turned it into a sanctuary 
for debtors and criminals, who, safe within its walls, 
set officers of justice at defiance, 

Francesco Sforza died at Milan eighteen months 
after Cosimo in Florence. Piero de' Medici, the elder 
son of Cosimo, too infirm to attend to business, and 
disheartened by what we call a commercial crisis, which 
occurred about this time, put his authority as ruler of 



The Revival of Letters 195 

Florence into the hands of six citizens. His two sons, 
Lorenzo and Giuliano, were young men fond of pleas- 
ure and apparently without ambition. But they had 
an excellent mother, and looked to her for advice and 
sympathy. 

Lorenzo de' Medici was born on New Year's day, 
1449. His father, Piero, died in 1469, five years after 
Cosimo. He had been a kind, just man, with great 
personal charm, but discouraged by a sense of his 
physical disability. 

Lorenzo and his brother had been carefully edu- 
cated, and when the Turks conquered Constantinople, 
they acquired a learned Greek for their tutor. The 
boys gave no indication of an especial love for learn- 
ing, but Lorenzo was early sent on semi-diplomatic 
missions, and his pleasant manners and handsome 
appearance won him favor with other princes, and 
indeed with everybody/ 

Luca Pitti, in 1466, made a conspiracy in Florence, 
and Lorenzo, who had been away upon his travels, 
arrived just in time to save his father. At the age of 
seventeen he had to take an important part in nego- 
tiations by which an apparently peaceful settlement 
was brought about. 

Lorenzo was not so much occupied at seventeen 
with political cares, but that he gave some attention 
to poetry and to love. His betrothed was a beautiful 
Roman girl, named Clarice, one of the Orsini family. 
They were married in Florence with great festivity. 
Lorenzo made a most devoted husband, but his wife 
was never very strong, and she died nine years after 
her marriaee. 



196 The Italian Republics 

It is pleasing after all the horrors we read as we 
turn each page of Italian history at this period, to 
have a little family picture like this to look upon. 
Lorenzo, however, was not all that was to have been 
hoped from his early love affair. In later life he was 
devoted to a married lady who had great charms of 
mind and manner, and whom he rode out to see at her 
country place every evening. 

History accuses Lorenzo of having destroyed the 
liberties of Florence, but one of his advocates puts a 
defense into his mouth. Suppose he should say, ''This 
city, Florence, was once a wrangling republic, she was 
presided over by liberty, clothed in the ragged scarlet 
of anarchy. She was the prey, not of one family, but 
of one hundred, who tore her to pieces with the greed 
of w^olves. Now she is more at peace, more prosper- 
ous, than ever before in her history, her citizens are 
all happy and flourishing, with the exception of a 
handful of men who crave my place and power." 

Jealousy of the Medici prompted three young men, 
one of whom had married Bianca, Lorenzo's sister, to 
form the Pazzi conspiracy in 1478, having had a new 
grievance, in a law passed through the influence of the 
Medici, which diverted an inheritance one of the 
brothers expected to receive, into another channel. 
Pope Sixtus IV. and the archbishop of Pisa were also 
in the conspiracy. Lorenzo and Giuliano were to be 
killed in church on the same day. Twice the plot 
failed, but at last it was undertaken by two priests, 
who set about it so unskilfully that Lorenzo was 
alarmed before the blow was struck and escaped; 
Giuliano, however, was killed. The citizens in Flor- 



The Revival of Letters 197 

ence were furious. More than seventy of the conspir- 
ators were torn to pieces by the mob in the streets. 
The archbishop and two of the Pazzi were hanged at 
once, and there were many more executions. 

Lorenzo, now the head of the house, ruled with a 
firm hand, but munificently and wisely. Especially 
he paid great attention to the arts and to letters, his 
own influence both as a poet and a man of taste making 
a strong impression upon the society of his day. 

The most impressive figure of the time besides 
Lorenzo himself, was Girolamo Savonarola, a Domini- 
can monk of Ferrara. With wonderful powers of elo- 
quence he preached a double reform, religious and 
political. He was shocked at the luxury and profligacy 
which, with wealth, had grown up in Florence under 
the rule of the Medici. He arrived in Florence on 
foot in the year 1489, and lodged in the Convent of 
San Marco, preaching with courage equal to his elo- 
quence against scandalous abuses in church and state, 
injustice in criminal procedures and immorality in 
men's lives and homes. Soon he numbered in his flock 
the most respectable inhabitants of Florence. 

In 1492 Lorenzo, attacked by a violent fit of the 
gout, sent for Savonarola. Up to that time the pious 
preacher had refused to see him. Even when he 
walked in the gardens of San Marco, Savonarola would 
never appear. 

On his deathbed at his country house at Cariggi, Lo- 
renzo sent for the great preacher. Before he arrived, 
however, another priest had seen the dying man who 
had confessed and had received the viaticum. On 
seeing Savonarola, Lorenzo wished to make further 



198 The Italian Republics 

confession. But the stern Dominican responded that 
before hearing the confession he must require three 
things. 

"What things, Father?" said Lorenzo. 

"First you must have a great and living faith in 
God's mercy." 

"I have it, Father," answered Lorenzo, firmly. 

"Secondly, you must restore all your ill-gotten 
wealth, or require your sons to restore it. ' ' 

Lorenzo hesitated a moment, and then gave his 
assent. Savonarola then stood up and said: "You 
must restore liberty to Florence." 

Lorenzo turned his face to the wall, and made no 
answer. Then Savonarola left him, and that night 
he diedo With him the glory of his city passed 
away. 

"In the contradictions of Lorenzo's character, the 
variety of his talents, and the paradox of his position, 
he stands forth as the pattern, the exemplar, of the 
many-sided age in which he lived. He was a prince 
of despotic power, yet nominally only one among the 
citizens of a little medieval city. He was of humble 
origin, and bore no title, yet he made himself the inti- 
mate friend of kings. He was not beyond his age nor 
above it. He was created by it. His limitations and 
his qualities were those of his time." 

Six years after the death of Lorenzo, that is on 
May 23, 1498, Savonarola, after having been tried by 
a spiritual court, and having offered to support his 
views by the ordeal of fire, through which he was will- 
ing to pass with the Host in his hand, was strangled 
and then burned in Florence in the presence of a large 



The Revival of Letters 199 

multitude, many of whom looked upon him — as many 
of the world still do — as a saint and a martyr. 

The state of Rome at this period well merited the 
denunciations of a Savonarola. Under Innocent VIII. , 
whose name was most inappropriate to his character, 
the record is one of perpetual violence. Innocent 
VIII. was weakly wicked, but after eight years he was 
succeeded by Rodrigo Borgia, who took the title of 
Alexander VI., under which name he has been handed 
down to infamy. He was the richest of the cardinals 
and at the same time the most depraved in morals, 
and the most perfidious as a politician. The great 
object of his life was to make his son, Cssar Borgia, 
supreme ruler in Italy. Brave, handsome, talented, 
powerful in person and determined in character, this 
son was a w^orthy ally of his father, for as a contempo- 
rary has recorded, "There is nothing so wicked and 
so criminal as not to be done publicly in Rome and in 
the house of the pope." Intrigues with the French 
king made Caesar duke of Valentinois in France. By 
deeds of treachery and tyranny he seized upon the 
duchy of Urbino and numerous small principalities, 
and was menacing Bologna, Sienna, and Florence when, 
in 1503, he and his father drank, by mistake, poison 
prepared for their guests. The pope died and Caesar's 
severe illness gave to his enemies, among whom was 
the new pope, Julius II., an advantage which they 
quickly improved. He was imprisoned in Spain, but 
finally escaped only to fall in the war against Castile. 

Lorenzo de' Medici left three sons, one of whom, 
when fourteen years of age, was made a cardinal, and 
in 15 13 — fifteen years after his father's death — became 



200 The Italian Republics 

Pope Leo X., whose sale of indulgences, as a means 
of raising money for architectural embellishments in 
the Eternal City, hastened the outbreak of the Refor- 
mation. 

Piero, the eldest of these sons, made himself hated 
and despised by the Florentines, notwithstanding their 
devotion to the memory of his great father. After an 
absence from Florence, during which he had weakly 
yielded to the French king, Charles VIII., important 
fortresses in Tuscan territory, he returned to find 
guards at the door of his palace, and was refused ad- 
mission. Surprised at this state of things, he tried to 
awaken popular sympathy, but found no response. 
The friends of liberty, excited by the exhortations of 
Savonarola, took up arms. Their number constantly 
increased and the Medici, terrified, fled from the city, 
thus losing a sovereignty which their family had exer- 
cised for sixty years. 

The invasion of the French under Charles VIII. , 
in 1494, spread terror from one extremity of the coun- 
try to the other. Italy tound herself surrounded on 
all sides by powers which had suddenly become gigarj- 
tic. While Charles pretended to be the legitimate 
heir of the kindom of Naples, Louis XII., who suc- 
ceeded him, called himself heir to the duchy of Milan. 
Maximilian of Germany claimed prerogatives in Italy 
which no emperor had pretended since the death of 
Frederick XL, in 1250. The Swiss had learned that 
at the foot of* their mountains there lay rich and feeble 
cities which they might pillage, and finally Ferdinand 
and Isabella of Spain announced their intention of 
defending the bastard branch of Aragon which reigned 



The Revival of Letters 201 

at Naples. In 1499 Louis XII. sent a powerful army 
into Italy, subduing Genoa, Milan, and all Lombardy, 
but on his return to France, the Italians, with a com- 
pany of Swiss allies, again rallied under Ludovico 
Sforza of Milan. Louis also enlisting the services of 
ten thousand Swiss confronted the Italians at Novara, 
and the Swiss, hesitating to attack each other, brought 
about a compromise dishonorable to all concerned. 
After assuring the success of the French king, they 
basely seized Belinzona, which they ever afterward 
retained. After his experience in the North, Louis 
anticipated an easy conquest of Naples. Here again 
perfidy won the day, for Ferdinand of Spain, false 
to his promises to King Frederick, landed a Spanish 
army in the kingdom under his great general, Gonzalvo 
de Cordova, and made a secret arrangement with 
Louis to divide the spoil. The jealous rulers could 
not, however, come to an understanding, and the 
French army, attacked first by pestilence and then by 
the Spaniards, was entirely destroyed, and in 1504 the 
kingdom of Naples, like that of Sicily, became a Span- 
ish possession. 

Pope Julius II., who came into power at this time, 
found certain of the cherished possessions of the papal 
states slipping into the grasp of Venice. The Vene- 
tians offered the same tribute and the same submission 
which the previous owners had given to the church, 
but declined to give up the territory. Julius then, 
with his powerful allies, Maximilian and Louis, formed 
the League of Cambray, and once more Italy was over- 
run by European armies till the pope in despair turned 
upon the foreigners and organizing the Holy League, 



202 The Italian Republics 

freed Italy from the yoke of France. It was but a 
sorry freedom, however, for Swiss, Spaniard, and Ger- 
man in succession were to tyrannize over the unhappy 
country. From the wars of this period it is a relief to 
turn to the triumphs of peace and to note briefly the 
career of the great painter, architect, and sculptor 
who was patronized by Pope Julius II. and by the two 
popes of the house of Medici. 

Michel Angelo Buonarotti was a descendant of the 
ancient family of the counts of Canossa. He was born 
in 1474 and was preeminent in painting, sculpture, 
architecture, and poetry. Literary people knew and 
admired his sonnets, in one of which he suggests 
that in each unhewn block of marble lies possibly a 
statue of inestimable worth. Besides his intellectual 
accomplishments he was a renowned swordsman. His 
first teacher of drawing in the academy of art founded 
in Florence by Lorenzo de' Medici, was Ghirlandajo, 
but by the time he was sixteen he had attained equal 
repute both in sculpture and in painting, and received 
a commission which associated him with Leonardo da 
Vinci, to decorate the state house of Florence with 
frescoes on subjects from Florentine history. The 
design was never carried out, but one of the cartoons 
executed by the young artist remains to us, though 
not in a state of perfect preservation. Pope Julius II. 
invited him to Rome to erect for him a splendid mau- 
soleum. The young architect had many rivals who 
planned to injure him by inducing the pope to give 
him a commission to decorate the ceiling of the Sistine 
chapel with frescoes. Michel Angelo had never 
worked in fresco, and his enemies felt sure that his 



The Revival of Letters 203 

execution of this task would destroy his reputation. 
At first he refused the commission, but at last accepted 
it and in twenty months finished the work which is one 
of the wonders of painting. He was then employed 
to make statues for the tomb of Pope Julius, one of 
which is the world famous Moses. 

At sixty years of age Michel Angelo was commis- 
sioned to paint on one vast wall of the Sistine chapel 
a gigantic fresco of the Last Judgment, a composition 
which has become one of the great pictures of the 
world. More than ten years afterward the great 
architect was persuaded to undertake the continuation 
of the building of St. Peter's, which had been delayed 
by political commotions and 'a confusion of plans; but 
dying nine years later, in 1565, he did not live long 
enough to see his own plan completely executed, and 
many alterations were made in it after he was gone. 

It was in the time of Pope Clement VII., 1527, 
that Charles V., made war upon the papacy. He had 
been greatly irritated by a league made by various 
Italian princes to oppose his pretensions to Italian 
territory. To his great surprise, the pope joined this 
Italian federation, and in 1527, the Constable de Bour- 
bon, deserting the French king, Francis I., and carry- 
ing his sword over to the emperor, led a mixed force 
of forty thousand German and Spanish soldiers against 
Rome. The pope and his cardinals took refuge in the 
stronghold of St. Angelo, and at the first assault the 
Constable, who was directing the attack in person, 
was killed by a bullet fired from an arquebus by the 
famous jeweler and sculptor, Benvenuto Cellini. 

The death of the Constable enraged his soldiers; 



204 The Italian Republics 

not only did they manfully continue their attack upon 
the castle, but the city itself, the capital of Christen- 
dom, was abandoned to a pillage unparalleled in its 
history. The pope at last made peace on most humili- 
ating terms. Before the emperor's troops were with- 
drawn the plague broke out among them Of the 
forty thousand soldiers brought by the Constable de 
Bourbon, only ten thousand remained alive, and they 
were anxious to leave the city. The pope, who was 
to be held in captivity until the stipulations on his 
part were complied with, was released after four 
months. 

Charles V., after his reconciliation with Clement 
VII., had raised the Medici in Florence to the stand- 
ard of princes. Florence was no longer a republic, 
but took her place among principalities as a grand 
duchy. Two women of the house of Medici married 
kings of France. Catherine, the dausihter of Lorenzo 
the Magnificent, wedded Francis I. ; and subsequently 
Marie, daughter of the Grand Duke Francis, became 
the second wife of Henry IV, In the time of Louis 
XVI. (nearly two hundred years after this period) the 
aristocratic religious community of Remiremont, which 
insisted that every lady who entered the order must 
show sixteen unblemished quarterings, refused to 
receive a princess of Orleans on the ground that her 
pedigree had been impaired by these marriages with a 
family connected with trade; for undoubtedly the 
Medici kept up their relations with the commercial 
world long after they had risen to political importance. 

After the extinction of a republic or a nominally 
republican form of government in Florence, there was 



The Revival of Letters 205 

no longer a rallying point for republican feeling in 
Italy. The policy of the German emperors was to 
make Italian cities with their dependencies into duch- 
ies. Thus Montferrat became a duchy and was given 
to Gonzaga of Mantua as a fief of the empire; many 
years later it was given over to the duke of Savoy. 
Genoa, after the French had retained it for twenty- 
nine years, found a deliverer in Andrea Doria. In 
Southern Italy, Philip II., of Spain, inherited the king- 
dom of Naples from Charles V., emperor of Germany 
and king of Spain, his father, and by a treaty made 
in 1559 between Philip and Henry II., of France, both 
monarchs agreed to renounce all claims to Piedmont, 
which was given back to its legitimate ruler, Em- 
manuel Philibert of Savoy. 

During the latter half of the sixteenth century the 
prosperity of Italy was increased by a long peace, 
during which time great artists and world-famous poets 
flourished, almost bringing back to Italy her ancient 
glory. But in the middle of the next century the war 
of the Spanish Succession broke out and in this war, 
which involved France, Austria, Spain, and England, 
Italy was again ravaged by armies and became the 
prey of the spoiler. 

SUMMARY AND QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

The Renaissance in Europe. Dante's influence felt in a 
growing love for poetry. Petrarch, Giotto, and Boccaccio. 
Florence cut off from the sea by Pisa. A French garrison in 
the citadel; Boucicault's treachery destroys the young Visconti; 
he opens the gates to the Florentines. Pisa loses commerce 
and population. Schism of the popes; Ladislaus of Naples 



2o6 The Italian Republics 

with his captain, Sforza, captures Rome and threatens other 
cities. The Florentines take Rome and make peace with 
Ladislaus; threatened by Filippo Maria Visconti, whose gen- 
eral, Francesco Carmagnola, had conquered Lombardy; Flor- 
ence appeals to Venice; Venice sends Carmagnola against the 
enemy; he succeeds, then fails, is tortured and executed by the 
Venetians. Rise of the Medici in Florence. Cosimo's interest 
in art and letters; exiled by Rinaldo Albizzi, who suffered the 
same fate later. Francesco Sforza becomes duke of Milan. 
Pope Nicholas V. restores order in Rome and destroys de- 
mocracy. Fall of Constantinople, 1453. Death of Cosimo, 
1464. Lorenzo de' Medici rules until 1492. Savonarola. The 
Borgias in Rome. The Medici expelled from Florence. In- 
vasions of Charles VIII. and Louis XII. The Spaniards seize 
the Two Sicilies. Pope Julius II. and Michel Angelo. Charles 
V. invades Italy. 

I. What great revival marked the fifteenth century in 
Europe? 2. How had the love of beauty already adorned the 
Italian cities? 3. How was the influence of poetry being felt 
at this time? 4. How did Florence at length get control of 
Pisa, and with what result? 5. How did the schism of the 
popes encourage Ladislaus of Naples? 6. Why did the Flor- 
entines make war against him? 7. W^hat new danger then 
threatened them? 8. What induced Venice to defend Lom- 
bardy? 9. Describe the career of Francesco Carmagnola. 
10. Who was the first illustrious member of the Medici family, 
and why? 11. What was the advice given him by his father? 
12. Why did Cosimo suffer exile? 13. Describe the struggles 
of Sforza with the Milanese. 14. How did Pope Nicholas V. 
establish his supremacy in Rome? 15. What was the result of 
the fall of Constantinople? 16. What influence had the mer- 
chant princes of Florence? 17. Who was Luca Pitti? 18. 
Give the chief events in the early life of Lorenzo de' Medici. 

19. With what political difficulties did he have to contend? 

20. Describe his meeting with Savonarola. 21. What was the 
mission and the fate of Savonarola? 22. Describe the career 
of the Borgias. 23. Why did the Medici lose favor in Florence? 
24. How did Italy suffer from Charles VIII. and Louis XII.? 



The Revival of Letters 207 

25. How did the Two Sicilies become a Spanish kingdom? 

26, What was the League of Cambray? 27. Give an account 
of Michel Angelo. 28. What was the result of the invasion 
of Charles V.? 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The Reiiaissmice itt Italy. Burckhardt. 

Lives of Lorejizo de' Medici by Roscoe and Carpenter. 

Life of Savo7iarola. V'illari. 

Life of Michel A7igeIo. Grimm. 

Flore ftce. A, J. C. Hare. 

Life and Tii7ies of Michel Angelo Biionarotti. J. A. 
Symonds. 

Life of Vittoria Colonna. Mrs. Roscoe. 

Echoes of Old Florence: Her Palaces and Those Who 
Have Lived in Them. Leader Scott. 

Ro77iola. George Eliot. 

Venetia7i Life. Howells. 

Sketches a7id Studies in Italy. Symonds. 

Memoirs of Be7ive7iiito Cellini. 



THE MAKERS 



OF 



MODERN ITALY 



THREE LECTURES DELIVERED AT THE 

SUMMER MEETING OF UNIVERSITY 

EXTENSION STUDENTS, 

HELD IN OXFORD, 

AUGUST, 1889 



J. A. R. MARRIOTT, M. A. 

NEW COLLEGE AND WORCESTER COLLEGE, 

OXFORD LECTURER IN MODERN 

HISTORY AND POLITICAL 

ECONOMY 



PART III. 



CHAPTER I 

GIUSEPPE MAZZINI 
AUSTRIAN DOMINATION IN ITALY 

In each of the great and well-defined periods into 
which the history of western Europe naturally divides 
itself, it is not difficult to find some leading idea, some 
guiding principle, some dominant maxim of statesman- 
ship, or some all-powerful institution which may serve 
to give a distinguishing characteristic to the age, and 
in relation to which particular events may be most 
conveniently regarded. By keeping this dominant 
principle or institution constantly in mind, the student 
is enabled to see in the scattered and apparently mis- 
cellaneous events of a particular period a consistency 
and coherence which they may sometimes seem to lack. 
By following this method much is gained. Not only 
is the attention of the student directed to the broader 
and more important movements of the time, but par- 
ticular events fall naturally into their true perspective. 
Thus in the centuries which succeeded the downfall of 
the older Roman empire, European politics were 
dominated by the Holy Catholic Church; while the 
social life of the peoples was molded under the all- 
absorbing institution of feudalism — a system which 
was itself the product of the clash of Roman and Teu- 
tonic institutions. As we approach the close of the 



212 The Makers of Modern Italy 

Middle Ages we find ourselves still in the presence, 
still to a large extent under the dominating influence, 
of these great medieval institutions. But they are no 
longer in the plenitude of power. Their meridian is 
passed; their commanding influence is undermined; 
new forces are pushing their way to the front. But 
even in their decay they are still the axis round which 
the politics and social life of western Europe continue 
to revolve. By the end of the fifteenth century, how- 
ever, the twofold unity of Church and Empire is defi- 
nitely broken up, and from its ruins there emerge 
independent and more or less consolidated nations, 
owning no allegiance to the emperor, and very little 
to the pope. For the complete accomplishment of 
this development two things were necessary: the de- 
struction of the disruptive power of the great feudal 
vassals, and the consolidation of the power of the 
national monarchies. 

In the attainment of national unity some states 
were, I need not say, very much ahead of others. 
England, for example, compassed the realization of 
her national identity as early as^ the thirteenth cen- 
tury; France and Spain not until the sixteenth; while 
other states, like Germany and Italy, have reached the 
same goal only within the last few years. Speaking 
generally, however, the national monarchies of western 
Europe attained their zenith toward the end of the 
seventeenth century. It was then that Louis XIV. 
could say with almost literal truth, L" etat c' est ?noi. 
And what was true of France was true in less degree 
of other European states. The monarchy absorbed 
into itself all the powers of the state. The ascendancy 



Giuseppe Mazzini 213 

of the great vassals had been utterly broken through 
the active assistance, or the passive acquiescence, of 
the Commons; and the crown, having absorbed the 
powers of the aristocracy, could without difficulty 
overcome the feeble resistance of the third estate. 
Representative institutions either, as in Spain, lost all 
vitality or, as in France, were entirely swept away. 
Thus Europe was prepared for what has been called 
with much felicity the "administrative absolutism" of 
the eighteenth century. And while monarchs like 
Frederick of Prussia, like Joseph II. of Austria, or 
Charles III. of Spain, were busy in bestowing on their 
peoples the blessings of paternal despotism at home, 
is it possible to define' the guiding principle of the 
international relations of their several states? I think 
it is. Speaking broadly, continental politics were 
dominated during this period by two forces: the theory 
of the balance of power, and the dynastic interests of 
the individual kings. But the grea't social and intel- 
lectual upheaval at the end of the eighteenth century — 
an upheaval which found its most striking manifesta- 
tion in France — wrought a tremendous revolution in 
the ideas of men, and ultimately in the policies of 
states. The French Revolution — to make use of a 
loose but convenient formula — bequeathed to the nine- 
teenth century two great dominating ideas: the idea 
of the rights of man as man, and the idea of the rights 
of nationalities as nationalities. The working of these 
forces in the present century has indeed often been 
obscured — at times so much obscured that some have 
doubted their existence — but in the main it is true to 
say that the one has controlled the internal policy, 



214 The Makers of Modern Italy 

while the other has given the determining bias to the 
external relations of the several European states. 
When the philosophic historian of the future comes to 
write the history of the nineteenth century he will, it 
may be supposed, mark as the distinguishing charac- 
teristics of this epoch the acquisition of supreme power 
by the many for the government of all, and the con- 
solidation of kindred and contiguous states, or rather 
bundles of states, on the basis of the vital principle of 
naiionalitw 

With the former development I have for the present 
no concern. It is the purpose of these lectures to 
examine in such detail as time may allow the most 
romantic, if not the most important and most striking, 
exemplification of the latter principle. 

With the great work of Italian unification four 
names will to all time be connected in inseparable 
association. For the moment I do not speak of the 
inspiration which the makers of modern Italy derived 
from the works of Dante and Alfieri. of d'Azeglio and 
Rossetti and Manzoni. The extent of their influence 
defies all common computation. It is my purpose to 
speak of the work of the men of action, of Mazzini, of 
Cavour, of Garibaldi; and not least of him whose cool- 
ness and courage, whose temperate zeal and whose 
unswerving honesty, whose clearness of vision and un- 
failing common sense, gave consistency and coherence 
to the life-work of them all. I speak, of course, of 
Victor Emmanuel, the first king of United Italy. 

And first, we must ask, what was the material upon 
which these great builders had to work? What was 
the condition of Italy, political and social, after the 



Giuseppe Mazzini 215 

Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars in the opening 
years of the present century? For long centuries the 
idea of Italian unity had been buried with the past; 
even the name of Italy had almost entirely ceased to 
be whispered by man. In the Middle Ages great parts 
were played on the stage of European politics by the 
city states of Italy, by Venice and Genoa, by Milan 
and Florence, by Pisa and by Rome. But of Italy as 
a whole, as a nation, we hear and know nothing; it 
did not exist. "Since the fall of the Roman empire 
(if even before it) there never has been a time," as 
Mr. Forsyth says with almost brutal truth, "when 
Italy could be called a nation any more than a stack 
of timber can be called a ship." As we approach 
more modern times, even the republics disappear; the 
city states are absorbed into the hands of mem.bers of 
one or other of the two great families which so long 
controlled the fortunes of that "distressful country." 
Italy becomes simply the battleground of contending 
nations and intriguing dynasties. During the latter 
half of the eighteenth century, indeed, Italy enjoyed 
an unusual calm. It was the calm, however, not of 
quiet, placid happiness, but of a miserable inertia, of 
a hopeless torpidity of soul. Cut up into petty prince- 
doms for the cadets of the houses of Hapsburg and 
of Bourbon, Italy lay beneath their yoke hopeless, 
emotionless, priest-ridden, and benumbed. 

In the last years of the century this repose was 
rudely interrupted by the Napoleonic occupation. To 
Italy Napoleon went in name, and' to some extent in 
fact, as a deliverer. Eventually, it is true, he imposed 
upon Italy a yoke heavier, it may be, than the yoke of 



2i6 The Makers of Modern Italy 

Bourbon or of Hapsburg whom he had displaced, but 
a yoke not without its salutary effects. To the 
Italian, as to the other disordered princedoms of con- 
tinental Europe, Napoleon was no doubt a scourge, a 
very disagreeable scourge, but on the whole a healthy 
one. For the corrupted courts which he invaded, for 
the petty thrones he overturned, it is impossible to 
feel one iota of respect, one scrap of sympathetic 
regret. In Italy, at any rate, he did nothing but 
good. He trampled under foot municipal jealousies 
and local prejudices; he reduced the political divisions 
of the country from fifteen to three; he constructed 
splendid roads and bridges — unifying forces of no 
mean significance. Before his overthrow he had rudely 
broken up the "ancient fixity of confusions which 
passed for government, and had aroused no insignifi- 
cant forces of new social life. The feudal tenure of 
land, and with it something of the feudal structure of 
society, had passed away. The French civil code, and 
a criminal code based upon that of France, had taken 
the place of a thousand conflicting customs and juris- 
dictions. Taxation had been made, if not light, at 
least equitable and simple. Justice was regular, and 
the same for baron and peasant. Brigandage had 
been extinguished, and for the first time in many cen- 
turies the presence of a rational and uniform adminis- 
tration was felt over the greater part of Italy." ' At 
his approach, too, the Jesuits had once more fled, 
education was placed on a reasonable basis, and the 
Italians, roused from their frivolous and lounging 
habits, were taught to think and act like men. But 

' C. A. Fyffe, History of Modern Europe, vol. ii, p. 178. 



Giuseppe Mazzini 217 

above all, Napoleon, little as he knew it, little as the 
Italians realized it at the time, was the first for centu- 
ries to evoke if not to create a sense, a consciousness 
of unity, of nationality, in Italy. As Mazzini himself 
has said of the Napoleonic occupation: "The intellec- 
tual rise, the rapid increase of national prosperity, the 
burst of fraternization . . . are facts, especially in 
the period 1805-13, irrevocably committed to history. 
Notwithstanding our dependence on the French em- 
pire, under political despotism and despite war, the 
feeling of nationality specially incorporated in our 
brave army elevated our souls, picturing in the dis- 
tance the oneness of Italy, the object of all our 
efforts." 

But for the moment the good seed was choked by 
the Restoration of 181 5. At that time, as Prince 
Metternich with cynical truth observed, Italy was 
merely a geographical expression. It was the purpose 
of the Viennese diplomatists to restore, as far as might 
be, the status quo ante Revolution. They hoped to 
renew in Italy the dynastic morcellement of the eight- 
eenth century. The states were once more parceled 
out among the members of the Bourbon or the Haps- 
burg house. The emperor of Austria, Francis II., 
helped himself to Lombardy and Venice ; Marie Louise, 
an Austrian archduchess, and sometime consort of 
the great Napoleon, was installed in the Duchy of 
Parma; Tuscany was given to Ferdinand III., also of 
the Austrian house, and Modena to his son Francis; 
Pius VII. reentered upon the temporal domains of the 
papacy, while the Bourbons were restored in the per- 
son of Ferdinand I. to the throne of Naples and Sicily. 



21 8 The Makers of Modern Italy 

The little republic of San Marino, looking sadly forth 
over the waters of the Adriatic, alone recalled the 
Italy of the Middle Age — an Italy divided but inde- 
pendent. 

Looking, however, no longer to the past but to the 
future, the most interesting feature of the Restoration 
still remains to be noticed. At the beginning of the 
sixteenth century the dukes of Savoy had acquired 
Piedmont, and thus succeeded in straddling the Alps. 
Their geographical position, as the Prince de Ligne 
has cynically said, did not permit them to behave like 
honest men. Consequently, by rather tortuous but in 
the main successful diplomacy, they managed in the 
eighteenth century to add the royal crown of Sardinia 
to the ducal crowns of Piedmont and Savoy; and 
never was a European war concluded, however remote 
the principal combatants might be, but the house of 
Savoy was able to acquire several of the towns of 
Lombardy, stripping it, as the saying goes, like an 
artichoke, leaf by leaf. Their position was still further 
strengthened in 1815 by the acquisition of the annihi- 
lated republic of Genoa. Such was the Italy of 1815, 
little better, if at all, than Metternich's "geographical 
expression." But for all that the Italy of 1815 was 
not the Italy of the ante-Napoleonic days. Strive as 
they might, the diplomatists of Vienna could not set 
back the hands of time, nor even "make things seem 
as though they had not been. ' ' They might, it is true, 
put back an Austrian here, a Bourbon there: they 
might annihilate ancient republics and carve out 
modern dukedoms; they might mark out with jealous 
care dividing lines which had been erased, and they 



Giuseppe MazzinI 219 

might again set up boundaries which had been broken 
down ; but they could not erase from the minds of the 
Italian people the newly awakened recollection of their 
ancient fame; they could not stifle, strive as they 
might, their newly conceived but none the less passion- 
ate longing for the realization of their national identity. 
I do not know where you will find more accurate or 
more eloquent expression of this feeling than in the 
letter addressed, thirty years afterward, by Mazzini 
nominally to Sir James Graham, really to the English 
people. 

"There are over there (in Lombardy) from four to 
five millions of human creatures gifted with an immor- 
tal soul, with powerful faculties,, with ardent and 
generous passions ; with aspirations toward free agency, 
toward the ideal which their fathers had a glimpse of, 
which nature and tradition point out to them; toward 
a national union with other millions of brother souls 
in order to attain it; from four to five millions of men 
desiring only to advance under the eye of God, their 
only master, toward the accomplishment of a social 
task which they have in common with sixteen or 
seventeen millions of other men, speaking the same 
language, treading the same earth, cradled in their 
infancy in the same maternal songs, strengthened in 
their youth by the same sun, inspired by the same 
memories, the same sources of literary genius. Coun- 
try, liberty, brotherhood, all are wrested from them; 
their faculties are mutilated, curbed, chained, within 
a narrow circle traced for them- by men who are 
strangers to their tendencies, to their wants, to their 
wishes; their tradition is broken under the cane of an 



220 The Makers of Modern Italy 

Austrian corporal; their immortal soul feudatory to 
the stupid caprices of a man seated on a throne at 
Vienna, to the caprices of the Tyrolese agents; and 
you go on indifferent, coolly inquiring if these men be 
subject to this or that tariff, if the bread that they eat 
costs them a halfpenny more or less! That tariff, 
whatever it is, is too high ; it is not they who have had 
the ordering of it; that bread, dear or not, is moist- 
ened with tears, for it is the bread of slaves." 

And indeed at that moment the Italian people were 
little better than slaves beneath the Austrian yoke. 
For it was Metternich who maintained the petty des- 
pots on their thrones, and dictated the policy which 
they were bound to carry out. The Bourbon princes 
and the Austrian archdukes nominally reigned in their 
several principalities; in reality they were simply pup- 
pets, the strings of which were pulled invariably from 
Vienna. The history of the Neapolitan insurrection 
of 1 82 1 will serve to illustrate the extent to which an 
Austrian domination was imposed even upon the nomi- 
nally independent states of Italy. The Bourbon Ferdi- 
nand of Naples had, on his restoration in 1815, 
solemnly pledged his word that he would respect the 
constitution drawn up for Sicily by Lord William 
Bentinck in 181 2. In 1816, at the bidding of Prince 
Metternich, that constitution was annulled, lest the 
example of Sicily might serve as a vicious model for 
the other princedoms of Italy. In 1820 a revolution 
broke out in Spain, and the insurgents succeeded in 
extorting from the king a liberal constitution. The 
excitement spread to southern Italy. The Neapolitan 
people, supported by the army, demanded from their 



Giuseppe Mazzini 211 

king a constitution on the model of that which had 
been conceded in Spain. The king granted the 
demands of the insurgents with apparent eagerness, 
fervently protesting his gratitude to God, who had per- 
mitted him in his old age to do a great good to his 
kingdom. Some days later the concession was ratified 
in the most solemn manner. The king having heard 
mass, approached the altar, and in presence of the 
court and ministers took his oath to the constitution. 
Then fixing his eyes upon the cross, he cried: "Om- 
nipotent God, who with infinite penetration lookest 
into the heart and into the future, if I lie, or if one 
day I should be faithless to my oath, do Thou at this 
moment annihilate me." The king having kissed the 
Gospel, the oath was taken by his sons, and the new 
constitution was publicly proclaimed. 

Meanwhile Prince Metternich and his copartners in 
the Holy Alliance had been looking on with great 
uneasiness at the development of events in southern 
Italy. It was no part of his policy to permit his vassal 
princes to make liberal concessions to their own sub- 
jects, nor indeed to take action in any way without his 
sanction. Not merely in Naples, but in many other 
states, there had already been manifestations of im- 
patience at the policy of simple restoration which had 
been enunciated at the Congress of Vienna. The allied 
monarchs took alarm and assembled in conference, 
first at Troppau in Bohemia, and afterward at Lay- 
bach. For this conference King Ferdinand set out in 
December, 1820, having once more publicly announced 
his adherence to the constitution to which he had 
sworn with such solemnity. Then comes the denoue- 



222 The Makers of Modern Italy 

ment of this blasphemous farce. At Troppau and Lay- 
bach absolutist sentiments were completely dominant. 
The English foreign minister — the much maligned 
Lord Castlereagh — was alone found to protest against 
the atrocious doctrine that a change of government in 
any state gave the allied powers the right to inter- 
fere — a doctrine which, as a recent historian has truly 
said, "would have empowered the czar to throw the 
armies of a coalition upon London if the reform bill 
had been carried by force." As Lord Castlereagh 
pointed out to the powers with admirable explicitness, 
England could never recognize the right of the allied 
sovereigns to interfere in the internal affairs of the 
several states. But despite this protest, to Austria 
was committed the work of quelling the liberal move- 
ment in southern Italy. King Ferdinand had no 
sooner got beyond the frontier of his own unhappy 
kingdom than he wrote to his brother sovereigns pro- 
testing that the concessions had been wrung from him 
by force, and that all his reCent acts were null and 
void. The Austrian troops marched on Naples; the 
Neapolitan troops ran away; the king was restored; 
the constitution was torn up ; and the insurgent lead- 
ers were either flung into dungeons or promptly 
hanged. Such was the way in which Prince Metter- 
nich galled the Italian peoples with the Austrian yoke 
from end to end of Italy. 

As it was in Naples so it was even in Piedmont, a 
state less dependent than any other on the nod of 
Metternich. When the Austrian troops had marched 
on Naples, the liberals of Piedmont, conceiving that 
the moment had arrived for striking a blow in the 



Giuseppe Mazzini 223 

cause of Italian independence, united with the malcon- 
tents of Lombardy with the object of flinging them- 
selves upon the rear of the Austrian army. In the 
northern movement, though it was the work in large 
measure of the Carbonari, there was nothing of hostil- 
ity toward the Sardinian monarchy. "Our hearts are 
faithful to the king, but we wish to deliver him from 
perfidious counsels. War against Austria; a constitu- 
tion like that granted in Spain; such are the wishes of 
the people." But the king Victor Emmanuel, though 
honestly inclined to concession in a liberal sense, was 
personally too deeply committed to Prince Metternich 
and the Austrian policy. In extreme bitterness of soul 
he laid down his scepter in favor of his brother, Charles 
Felix, Meanwhile the northern insurrection hopelessly 
miscarried; the leaders were divided; Charles Felix 
was away; one party was inclined to pass him over in 
favor of his cousin, Charles Albert, Prince of Savoy- 
Carignano; another was faithful to the legal king. 
And while the leaders disputed, their followers were 
paralyzed. The whole movement ended in complete 
collapse. The Austrian yoke was reimposed on Lom- 
bardy with tenfold rigor; the dungeons were crammed 
with prisoners; every movement, every action of an 
Italian native was watched with jealous vigilance, and 
tortures were applied to extort from the sufferers even 
the unspoken wishes of the heart. Who can wonder 
that in those dark days a dull despair fell even on the 
bravest of Italian patriots? But yet not on all. 

Italia ! when thy name was but a name, 
When to desire thee was a vain desire, 
When to achieve thee was impossible. 



224 The Makers of Modern Italy 

When to love thee was madness, when to live 

For thee was the extravagance of fools, 

When to die for thee was to fiing away 

Life for a shadow — in those darkest days 

Were some who never swerved, who lived, and strove. 

And suffered for thee, and attained their end ! 

Of these brave spirits who, in the dark days before 
1848, looked on the sufferings and degradation of their 
native land, in bitterness of soul indeed, but still with 
passionate and steadfast hope, there was none so sad 
and yet so steadfast, there was none filled with such 
lofty purpose and such pure enthusiasm as Joseph 
Mazzini. 

Born at Genoa in 1805, Mazzini, like Cavour and 
Garibaldi, was a Sardinian subject. Even in child- 
hood he was impressed with the misery and degra- 
dation of his country. In his early school-days, as 
throughout his life, it was his morbid fancy to wear 
nothing but black. "In the midst of the noisy tumul- 
tuous life of the scholars around me I was," he tells 
us, "somber and absorbed, and appeared like one sud- 
denly grown old. I childishly determined to dress 
always in black, fancying myself in mourning for my 
country." It was after the failure of 1821 that Maz- 
zini first became conscious of the mission of his life. 
While walking one Sunday with his mother and a friend 
in the streets of Genoa, they were addressed, he tells 
us in his most interesting autobiography, by a "tall 
black-bearded man with a severe and energetic coun- 
tenance, and a fiery glance that I have never since for- 
gotten. He held out a handkerchief toward us, merely 
saying, 'For the refugees of Italy.' " The incident, 



Giuseppe Mazzini 225 

simple as it was, made a profound impression on Maz- 
zini's ardent soul. "The idea of an existing wrong in 
my own country against which it was a duty to strug- 
gle, and the thought that I too must bear my part in 
that struggle, flashed before my mind on that day for 
the first time, never again to leave me. The remem- 
brance of those refugees, many of whom became my 
friends in after life, pursued me wherever I went by 
day and mingled with my dreams by night. I would 
have given I know not what to follow them. I began 
collecting names and facts, and studied as best I 
might the records of that heroic struggle, seeking to 
fathom the causes of its failure." 

Shortly after the completion of his university career 
Mazzini joined the ranks of the Carbonari, and thus 
definitely embarked on a career of political agitation. 
To him, as to many men of delicate perceptions and 
refined imagination, such a step was a great sacrifice. 
He himself spoke of it in after years as his *'first great 
sacrifice. " He had looked forward from his childhood 
to a literary career. ''A thousand visions of histori- 
cal dramas and romances floated before my mental 
eye — artistic images that caressed my spirit as visions 
of gentle maidens soothe the soul of the lonely-hearted. 
The natural bias of my mind was very different from 
that which has been forced upon me by the times in 
which I have lived and the shame of our degradation." 
But Mazzini saw, clearly enough, that the literary 
issues then at stake, as between the Classicists and 
Romanticists, important as they seemed, must be post- 
poned to the solution of the vital political problem. 
"Without a country and without liberty we might per- 



226 The Makers of Modern Italy 

haps produce some prophets of art, but no vital art. 
Therefore it was better for us to consecrate our Hves 
to the solution of the problem, Are we to have a coun- 
try? and turn at once to the political question. If we 
were successful, the art of Italy would bloom and flour- 
ish over our graves." 

Were the Italians to have a country? That was the 
problem to the solution of which Mazzini consecrated 
his life. We may decline — I think we must decline — 
to approve the means by which Mazzini was compelled 
at first to work; we may loathe, as he loathed, the 
midnight machinations of secret societies like the Car- 
bonari; we may despise the republican fanaticism by 
which his later work was unhappily disfigured, but we 
can never question, if we know anything of the man 
himself, his single-minded patriotism, or the lofty and 
sustained elevation of his moral teaching. And you 
must realize, if you would judge him fairly, the con- 
ditions under which he had to work. 

" It is death 
To speak the very name of Italy 
To this Italian people." 

What wonder, then, that patriotism, which might under 
happier conditions have found a vent in constitutional 
agitation, was forced into unhealthy subterranean 
channels? No one ever despised or hated such 
methods more than Mazzini himself. But for the 
moment he was compelled to work with such tools as 
were at his command. Shortly after the July revolu- 
tion of 1830, Mazzini, having been entrapped by a 
government spy into the performance of some trifling 
commission for the Carbonari^ was arrested and im- 



Giuseppe Mazzlnl 227 

prisoned in the fortress of Savona on the western 
Riviera. "The government was not fond," so his 
father was informed, "of young men of talent, the 
subject of whose musings was unknown to them." 
After six months' imprisonment Mazzini was acquit- 
ted of conspiracy, but was nevertheless exiled from 
Italy. 

Meanwhile the events of the "glorious days of 
July," as they are grandiloquently termed, had not 
been without their influence in his native land. Under 
the influence of the Carbonari, insurrections simultane- 
ously broke out in Modena, in Bologna, and in other 
parts of the papal states. The new pope, Gregory 
XVI., elected to the papal throne in the midst of the 
insurrectionary confusion, and alarmed by the decla- 
ration of the insurgents that the temporal dominion 
was at an end, invoked the aid of Austria. Metter- 
nich, nothing loath, marched an army into Italy; the 
States of the Church were occupied and order was 
restored. Jealous of Austria's exclusive interference, 
the French government despatched a force into Italy 
and occupied Ancona. The rival forces continued to 
confront each other in Italy for several years, but 
without further results of any kind. 

Early in the same year, 1831, Charles Felix had 
been succeeded on the Sardinian throne by his cousin 
Charles Albert, a man who in earlier days had coquet- 
ted with the Carbonari movement. Mazzini, who was 
in exile at Marseilles, at once addressed to him his 
memorable "letter to the king." "The people," it 
declared, "are no longer to be quieted by a few con- 
cessions. They seek the recognition of those rights 



228 The Makers of Modern Italy 

of humanity which have been withheld from them for 
ages. They demand laws and liberty, independence 
and union. Divided, dismembered, and oppressed, 
they have neither name nor country. They have heard 
themselves stigmatized by the foreigner as a helot 
nation. They have seen free men visit their country 
and declare it the land of the dead. They have 
drained the cup of slavery to the dregs, but they have 
sworn never to fill it again." Let the king champion 
the cause not merely of Piedmont, but of Italy. "All 
Italy waits for one word — one only — to make herself 
yours. Proffer this word to her. Place yourself at 
the head of the nation and write on your banner: 
'Union, Liberty, Independence.' Proclaim the lib- 
erty of thought. Declare yourself the vindicator, the 
interpreter of popular rights, the regenerator of all 
Italy. Liberate her from the barbarians. Build up 
the future; give your name to a century; begin a new 
era from your day. . . . Select the way that accords 
with the desire of the nation; maintain it unalterably; 
be firm and await your time ; you have the victory in 
your hands. Sire, on this condition we bind ourselves 
round you, we proffer you our lives, we will lead to 
your banner the little states of Italy. We will paint 
to our brothers the advantages that are born of union; 
we will promote national subscriptions, patriotic gifts; 
we will preach the word that creates armies, . . . 
Unite us, Sire, and we shall conquer." 

To this passionate appeal the king was deaf; his 
only answer was an order that if Mazzini attempted 
to cross the frontier into Italy he should be instantly 
arrested. But though the king was deaf, the people 



Giuseppe Mazzini 229 

listened, and flocked in their thousands to join the 
association which Mazzini had lately founded. This 
was the famous association of "Young Italy." Ever 
since his imprisonment at Savona, Mazzini had been 
pondering over a scheme for establishing an associ- 
ation which should take the place of the secret soci- 
eties like the Carbonari. He disliked their methods 
and 'mistrusted their aims. Their creed was purely 
negative; they were the sworn foes of tyranny, the 
determined opponents of the existing regime in Italy. 
That regime they were resolved to overthrow; but 
they looked no farther. In fine, they had no construc- 
tive policy. This lack of an inspiring creed, a vivify- 
ing faith, Mazzini sought to supply in his association 
of Young Italy. The Carbonari movement had hope- 
lessly failed, as it deserved to fail, though not perhaps 
for the particular reasons to which Mazzini attributed 
its failure. To Mazzini 's thinking it had leaned too 
much on the support of the educated, influential 
classes. "Revolutions," he says, "must be made by 
the people and for the people. This is our word, it 
sums up our whole doctrine; it is our science, our 
religion, our heart's affection." But the Carbonari 
were not only too aristocratic, they lacked the machin- 
ery for sim.ultaneous and concerted action, and concert 
and simultaneity are of the essence of successful revo- 
lution. They had no program, no faith, no lofty 
ideal. Thus the first duty of the new association was 
to declare war on the existing idolatry of material 
interests; to convince the Italian people that "the 
sole path to victory was through sacrifice, constancy 
in sacrifice." They must begin with the education of 



230 The Makers of Modern Italy 

the people. "Italy was materialist, Machiavellian, 
believing in the initiative of France, and seeking rather 
to emancipate and ameliorate the condition of the 
separate states than to constitute herself a nation. 
The country was regardless of high principles, and 
ready to accept any form of government, any mode of 
assistance, or any man brought forward with a prom- 
ise of relieving her immediate sufferings. On my side 
I believed . . . that the great problem of the day was 
a religious problem." Here you see at once the 
strength and the weakness of the man. His passion- 
ate ardor, his unswerving faith, his lofty idealism — 
an idealism which revolted from the use of means 
other than those which he himself selected. It was 
on these lines that Mazzini drew up the statutes of the 
new association. "Young Italy is a brotherhood of 
Italians who believe in a law of progress and duty and 
are convinced that Italy is destined to become one 
nation. . . . They join this association in the firm 
intent of consecrating both thought and action to the 
great aim of reconstructing Italy as one independent 
sovereign nation of free men and equals. " The means 
by which the end was to be attained — we may smile at 
the collocation — were "education and insurrection, to 
be adopted simultaneously." 

The expulsion of the hated Austrians was the first 
prerequisite. Since it was impossible to avoid a war,- 
bloody and inexorable, the sooner it was attempted 
the better. Such a war must be waged by Italians and 
for Italy. No reliance must be placed on foreign 
governments or on the efforts of diplomacy. All 
thoughts of federalism, of independence without unity. 



Giuseppe Mazzlni 231 

must be laid aside. "Federalism would cancel the 
great mission of Italy in the world." Young Italy, 
therefore, is unitarian. ''Never," said Mazzini to his 
followers, "never rise in any other name than that of 
Italy and of all Italy." Mazzini himself was by con- 
viction a stern republican, and the members of Young 
Italy were sworn to educate the Italian people in that 
doctrine. But there was to be no forcing of the delib- 
erate conviction of the people. The ultimate form of 
government, when once unity had been achieved, was 
to be left to their own deliberate choice. The republi- 
canism of Mazzini was of the truly liberal sort. "We 
shall," say the statutes, "we shall bow the head and 
accept any form of government chosen by universal 
suffrage, because it is the duty of individual opinion 
to give way before the voice of the nation." Such, 
in rough, imperfect outline, was the political program 
of Mazzini, carefully elaborated in the statutes of 
Young Italy. You will find those statutes in the col- 
lected edition of his works. 

The effect produced by these propaganda was im- 
mediate and profound. "From student to student, 
from youth to youth, confraternity extended with un- 
exampled rapidity, and the same hands that smuggled 
the paper into Italy brought back such a multitude of 
names and adhesions as to astonish the little band of 
fellow-exiles who had undertaken with Mazzini the 
labor and the risk of the publication. The new asso- 
ciation quickly became dominant from end to end of 
Italy. "It was," says Mazzini, "the triumph of 
principles; the bare fact that in so short a space of time 
a handful of young men, themselves sprung from the 



232 The Makers of Modern Italy 

people, unknown, without means, . . . found them- 
selves thus rapidly at the head of an association suffi- 
ciently powerful to concentrate against it the alarmed 
persecution of seven governments is, I think, in itself 
enough to show that the banner they had raised was 
the banner of truth." The "alarmed persecution of 
governments" was no empty phrase. In August, 1832, 
Mazzini was decreed an exile from France, though for 
a whole year or more he continued in Marseilles, elud- 
ing the vigilance of the French police. In 1833 he 
went to Switzerland, whence he took part in the ill- 
starred and abortive expedition into Savoy. In 1836 
even the Swiss government was prevailed upon to deny 
him further hospitality, and it was not till the follow- 
ing year that he found a home in the only European 
state which has never refused a home to political 
exiles. In 1837 he settled in England, which, as he 
himself has written, "became to me almost as a second 
country, and in which I found the lasting consolation 
of affection in a life embittered by delusions and desti- 
tute of all joy." From England he continued, amid 
the trials of deepening poverty, to direct the affairs of 
his association. But great as was his influence, even 
in exile, his countrymen were by no means unanimous 
in the acceptance of his views. 

Besides those whom we may term the Mazzinisti 
there were two other influential parties which, while 
sharing to the full Mazzini's longing for the realization 
of Italian unity, sought to attain it by very different 
means. Of the party which began to look to Pied- 
mont as the destined champion of Italian independence 
I shall have more to say in my next lecture. The 



Giuseppe Mazzini 233 

other great party, the neo-Guelphs — at this time under 
the leadership of Gioberti — looked to the papacy to 
put itself at the head of the national insurrection, and 
for a moment it seemed as though their hopes might 
not be altogether ill-founded. In 1846 the old pope 
Gregory XVI. died, and Pio Nono was elected to suc- 
ceed him. He began his pontificate by the issue of an 
amnesty, and the inauguration of some long-delayed 
reforms. The neo-Guelphs jumped to the conclusion 
that the millennium had already dawned, and hailed 
the unhappy pontiff as the messiah of Italian freedom. 
"Seldom," as a modern critic has well said, "has his- 
tory shown a more curious complication of false posi- 
tions and inextricable dilemmas. . . . The new pope 
took from the first a lofty view of his spiritual preroga- 
tive, but began his reign without a definite temporal 
policy. . . . He promised reforms, and was rewarded 
by calculated acclamations."^ Mazzini had as little 
liking for popes as for kings; but never losing sight 
for a moment of the great end he had in view, he 
addressed to the new pope a letter pointing out to him 
the great mission which he might fulfil. He did win 
a fleeting popularity by protesting against the Austrian 
occupation of Ferrara. But his zeal for internal reform 
speedily evaporated, if indeed it had ever existed out- 
side the heated imagination of the neo-Guelphic party. 
In Tuscany, however, and in Piedmont, considerable 
administrative reforms were carried out by the ruling- 
princes, to the immense delight of their peoples, but 
to the infinite chagrin of Metternich. King Ferdinand 
of Naples, the notorious Bomba, was almost alone in 

' F. H. W, Myers, Essay on Mazzini. 



234 The Makers of Modern Italy 

his obstinate refusal to grant any sort of concession 
to his people. 

But every day the irritation was growing, every day 
the determination of all classes of Italians to realize 
the unity, and especially the independence, of their 
country was becoming fiercer and more intense. The 
general feeling manifested itself in a hundred ways. 
The scientific congress at Genoa, the agricultural con- 
gress at Casale, were in reality political gatherings 
under a thin disguise. At the congress at Casale a 
letter from Charles Albert of Piedmont to the Count 
of Castegneto was communicated to the assembled 
delegates. "Austria," wrote the king, "has sent a 
note to all the powers, in which she declares her wish 
to retain Ferrara, believing she has a right to it. . . . 
If Providence sends us a war of Italian independence, 
I will mount my horse with my sons, I will place my- 
self at the head of an army. . . . What a glorious day 
it will be in which we can raise the cry of a war for the 
independence of Italy I" The enthusiasm aroused by 
this pronouncement was intense; the congress begged 
the king to place himself at the head of the Italian 
movement and unsheath at once the sword of inde- 
pendence. 

Such, then, was the condition of affairs in Italy on 
the eve of the revolutionary year. The agitation for 
reform was universal, when news arrived that caused 
the idea of mere constitutional reform to be flung 
aside, and made men realize that the time had come 
for striking not only at the petty despots in the Italian 
princedoms, but at the giant powers by whom their 
despotisms had been so long sustained. In the Febru- 



Giuseppe Mazzini 235 

ary of 1848 revolution broke out in Paris; the Orleans 
dynasty was overthrown, and the second republic was 
proclaimed. In March the revolutionary fever reached 
the core of European absolutism. Convulsions took 
place in Vienna, so fierce that even the mighty Metter- 
nich was shaken from his pedestal and driven forth to 
share the exile of thousands of his former victims. 

It seemed, indeed, as though the hour of Italy's 
deliverance had come. Already insurrection had 
broken out in Sicily, and even Ferdinand had been 
obliged to concede a constitution. A month later 
(nth February, 1848), the Grand Duke of Tuscany fol- 
lowed suit, and in March new constitutions, on a 
parliamentary basis, were promulgated in Piedmont 
and in Rome. But the news from Vienna awoke aspi- 
rations of a more far-reaching kind. The joyous 
enthusiasm with which it was received in Italy was 
simply electric. Before the end of March the Austri- 
ans had been compelled to evacuate Milan; Venice 
had expelled her foreign rulers, and had reestablished 
the republic under Daniel Manin ; the princes of Modena 
and Parma, the puppets of Metternich, had fled; while 
Charles Albert of Piedmont had placed himself at the 
head of the national movement and flung defiance at 
the Austrian empire. Tuscany was not long behind. 
The grand duke himself published a stirring procla- 
mation to the troops he sent to join the other contin- 
gents. "Soldiers! the holy cause of the independence 
of Italy is now to be decided on the fields of Lom- 
bardy. Already the citizens of Milan have bought 
with their blood, and by a heroism the like of which 
history affords but few examples, their liberty. 



236 The Makers of Modern Italy 

Already the Sardic army moves into the field, led by 
its magnanimous king. Sons of Italy, heirs of the 
glory of their ancestors the Tuscans, cannot, must not, 
remain in shameful ease at such a solemn moment. 
Fly, then; unite yourselves to the valiant citizens who 
as volunteers are ranging themselves under one ban- 
ner — fly to the succor of our Lombard brothers!" 
Even the wretched Bomba was forced for the moment 
to simulate adherence to the universal movement. No 
sooner had the Austrian yoke been flung off than all 
the northern states — Parma, Piacenza, Modena, Lom- 
bardy, and Venice — united themselves with the Sar- 
dinian kingdom by universal plebiscite. The union of 
North Italy under the hegemony of Sardinia, the 
expulsion of the alien, the beginnings of Italian inde- 
pendence, and even of Italian unity, seemed in an 
instant to have been achieved. 

But the Austrian power was still too strong. Not 
even the enthusiasm of Garibaldi, nor the ardor of 
Mazzini, who had hurried back to enroll himself as a 
volunteer in the Garibaldian legion, could withstand 
the strategic skill of the veteran Radetsky. Charles 
Albert was forced to his knees; an armistice was 
signed, and the Austrian yoke was reimposed once 
more on the whole of northern Italy. Venice alone 
held out. In the spring of 1849 Charles Albert again 
renewed the war; but again he was crushed by Radet- 
sky in the great battle of Novara, on March 23, 1849. 
On the evening of that fatal day the old king resigned 
his scepter to his young son, famous to all time as the 
creator of Italian unity — Victor Emmanuel. 

Meanwhile events had been moving fast in Rome. 



Giuseppe Mazzini 237 

On the outbreak of the insurrection the pope declared, 
after much vacillation, that he would not join the 
national movement against the Austrian power in Italy; 
at the same time he had placed Count Rossi, a man of 
liberal sympathies, at the head of affairs in Rome. In 
November Count Rossi was foully assassinated. He 
had essayed the hopeless task of adhering to a policy 
of moderation in times of revolution. The pope in 
terror fled to Gaeta, where he placed himself under 
the protection of Ferdinand of Naples. Rome, left 
without government of any kind, was for the moment 
a prey to anarchy. But on the 9th of February, 1849, 
the parliament proclaimed the establishment of the 
republic. Mazzini, having been elected a member of 
the Roman Parliament, hurried southward to do his 
part in organizing the government. His first sight of 
the sacred city filled his imaginative soul with a new 
enthusiasm. "Rome," he writes, "was the dream of 
my young years, the generating idea of my mental 
conception, the keystone of my intellectual edifice, 
the religion of my soul; and I entered the city with a 
deep sense of awe, almost of worship. ... As I 
passed through the Porta del Popolo I felt an electric 
thrill run through me, a spring of new life. I shall 
never see Rome more, but the memory of her will 
mingle with my dying thought of God, and of my best 
beloved; and wheresoever fate may lay my bones, I 
believe that they will once more know the thrill that 
ran through me then, on the day when the republican 
banner shall be planted, in pledge of the unity of our 
Italy, upon the Vatican and capitol." The dream of 
the prophet is realized, but only in part. The banner 



238 The Makers of Modern Italy 

of Italian unity is floating over Rome to-day, but it is 
the banner, not of a Mazzinian republic, but of a liberal 
and well-ordered monarchy. 

But the republic of 1849, though short-lived was not 
inglorious. The Triumvirs, acting with the utmost 
lyioderation toward all parties, still labored assiduously 
to put Rome in a condition to defend herself. The 
pope, meanwhile, was engaged in ceaseless intrigues 
for the intervention of some foreign power by whom his 
authority might be restored. Eventually the task was 
undertaken, though not avowed, by France. Louis 
Napoleon, who had recently become president of the 
French republic, seized the opportunity for concili- 
ating at one stroke the affection of the army and the 
clericals of France. "It was not," says M. Thiers 
with brutal frankness, "for the sake of Catholicism, 
it was not for the sake of the Roman people, that we 
went to Rome; it was for the sake of France." In 
face of this new danger the Roman Triumvirate stood 
firm. But though Oudinot was once repulsed, the 
Romans could not hold out for long against a siege 
supported by thirty-five thousand men. On the 3d of 
July, 1849, Rome fell; the republic was overthrown, 
and the pope by the arms of France was restored to 
his temporal power. Venice, under Daniel Manin, was 
still heroically standing out against the Austrians, but 
in August Venice too succumbed, and the triumph of 
Austrian absolutism was complete. Once more the 
chains of despotism were riveted on the Italian peoples. 
Once more the timid princes found courage, under the 
protection of their powerful patron, to creep back to 
their tottering thrones. But though to all outward 



Giuseppe Mazzini 239 

seeming the Austrian rule in Italy was reestablished 
in the plenitude of absolute power, yet in reality the 
system had received a shock from which it never after- 
ward recovered. The drama of Italian unity was 
hurrying on to a denouement destined to destroy not 
merely Austrian despotism, but at the same time and 
not less surely the republican ideal of Mazzini. The 
consideration of this development for the present I 
postpone. 

Nor is it necessary in this place to dwell on the 
subsequent career of Mazzini. His life mission, little 
as he knew it, was already fulfilled. To the further 
solution of the great problem, the importance of which 
he had been the first to realize, he could contribute 
nothing. The work must fall to other hands. The 
lofty idealism of the prophet must give place to the 
practical sagacity of the statesman. Mazzini lived 
indeed to see the consummation of Italian unity. But 
though the good time came for Italy at last, the man- 
ner of its coming was as gall and wormwood to the 
republican fanatic, wrapped as he was in ever deepen- 
ing gloom as he saw the long-sought goal attained by 
the efforts of men he hated, and by methods he de- 
spised. The truth is, that there was in Mazzini more 
of the prophet than the statesman. It was his to in- 
spire the workers with something of his own ardent 
temper, something of his own sustained and lofty zeal, 
something of his own enthusiasm — an enthusiasm 
always generous and pure, though somewhat rigid and 
confined. But though he had in full measure the brain 
to conceive, Mazzini had not the hands to execute a 
great and enduring political work. To my thinking, 



240 The Makers of Modern Italy 

indeed, Mazzini is to be accounted great primaril}-, and 
above all else in this: that he was in the domain of 
politics a great moral teacher; that, however mistaken 
his own methods, however paltry his own immediate 
or direct achievements, he did set before the states- 
men, not of his own time only, nor of his own country 
only, but of all times and all countries, an ideal, of 
necessity imperfect, but at least clear of all sordid and 
self-seeking aim. 

And yet, idealist as he was, Mazzini was no mere 
dreamer of vain dreams; stern in adherence to the 
republican idea, he was no mere iconoclast, no fulsome 
preacher to the multitude of rights to be enjoyed with- 
out corresponding duties faithfully fulfilled. To him 
democracy is in no sense the rule of lawless mobs ; but 
as he himself has put it in the noblest definition of 
democracy ever given to the world, it is the "progress 
of all through all under the leading of the best and 
wisest." To him the sole origin of every right w^as in 
a duty fulfilled. "If," he says in the preface to his 
Duties of Mail ^ "if you would emancipate yourselves 
from the arbitrary rule and tyranny of man, you must 
begin by rightly adoring God. And in the world's 
great battle between the two great principles of good 
and evil, you must openly enroll yourselves beneath 
the banner of the first and ceaselessly combat the 
second. ... It was because I saw these two lies — 
Machiavellism and materialism — too often clothe 
themselves before your eyes with the seductive fasci- 
nations of hopes which only the worship of God and 
truth can realize, that I thought to warn you by this 
book. I love you too well either to flatter your passions 



Giuseppe Mazzini 241 

or to caress the golden dreams by which others seek 
to win your favor. My voice may sound too harsh, 
and 1 may too severely insist on proclaiming the neces- 
sity of virtue and sacrifice ; but I know, and you too, 
untainted by false doctrines and unspoiled by wealth, 
will soon know also, that the sole origin of every right 
is in a duty fulfilled." , These surely are not the 
words, these are not the thoughts of a fawning dema- 
gogue, but of a pure-minded, God-sent prophet, con- 
scious of a lofty purpose, clear as to his mission, 
self-devoted to the noble task of rescuing his fellow- 
countrymen from the degrading yoke of alien tyrants ; 
of emancipating his fellow-men throughout the world 
from the no less ignoble tyranny of selfish passions 
and of base desires. 

" Wherefore then wast thou 
Outlaw in every kingdom of the world 
Except in England ? England, thank thou God 
For that cold shelter that thou gavest him, 
For which he blessed thee, giving thee back love 
For the long years of scornful disregard ! 
Was he not branded with all calumny, 
Because he dared to teach the naked truth ? 
Christ's words were not a book for Sabbath-days, 
But law of life and judgment of the land ; 
Not to be chosen, and pieced and dogmatized. 
But lived up to, the whole and not a part, 
Alive, not dead, one spirit in new forms ; 
And lived as Christ lived, poor, despised, alone, 
Apart with God and working miracles. 
Not on the waves and winds, but on the wills 
Of men, upon the hearts of multitudes. 
The hidden germ of fresh humanities, 
Of live confederations yet unborn. 



24.2 The Makers of Modern Italy 

The hidden founts of gathering river floods, 
To bear one day the music of his name 
Through lands of harvest to the boundless sea. 



QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

I, What two great institutions made themselves strongly- 
felt during the Middle Ages? 2. At what different periods did 
the leading states of Europe become distinct nations? 3. What 
two great ideas did the French Revolution bequeath to the 
nineteenth century? 4. What was the condition of Italy in 
the last half of the eighteenth century? 5. What did Italy 
gain from the rule of Napoleon? 6. How did the Congress of 
Vienna parcel out Italy in 1815? 7. What feeling was expressed 
by Mazzini in his letter to Sir James Graham? 8. How was the 
overthrow of the constitution of Naples carried out by Metter- 
nich? 9. What results followed the uprising in Piedmont? 10. 
Describe Mazzini's early life up to his arrest in 1830. 11. What 
was the nature of Mazzini's letter to King Charles Albert in 
1831? 12. Why did Mazzini have little faith in the Carbonari? 
13. What was the creed of "Young Italy"? 14. How did the 
beginnings of the revolutionary spirit begin to show them- 
selves? 15. Describe the revolution of 1848. 16. How was it 
crushed by Austria? 17. How were Rome and Mazzini affected 
by the revolution? 18. What fate soon overtook both Rome 
and Venice? 19. What was the mission of Mazzini? 20. Give 
his definition of democracy. 



CHAPTER II 

CAVOUR 

THE LIBERATION OF NORTH ITALY 

"To all outward seeming the triumph of Austrian 
absolutism was once more complete." Such were the 
words in which, last time, I summed up the results of 
the period, the events of which I was endeavoring to 
trace. Black indeed was the outlook for Italy in 1849, 
when Victor Emmanuel of Sardinia, in the hopefulness 
of youth, took up the scepter which his father in the 
disappointment of age had flung aside. The "Year of 
Revolution," at one time bright with hope for Italy, 
had come and gone and had left Italy even more hope- 
less than before. In northern Italy the Austrian yoke 
was riveted more firmly than ever on her subject prov- 
inces; the vassal princes, the king of the Two Sicilies, 
the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and all the lesser fry, were 
restored to their wretched principalities, determined 
to avenge by petty persecution the fright they had 
sustained the year before. Even Piedmont — the hope 
of liberal Italy — lay prostrate for the moment under 
the crushing defeat of Novara. To all seeming the 
work of thirty years and more had gone for nothing. 
Italy was no nearer the goal of unity, the goal of inde- 
pendence, than she had been when, in 1815, the Vien- 
nese diplomatists had carved out her dukedoms and 

243 



244 The Makers of Modern Italy 

parceled out her provinces like so many slices, as the 
saying goes, of a ripe Dutch cheese. She was still dis- 
membered, still divided, still unfree, given over to a 
despotism that crushed the body and benumbed the 
soul. "The pope clutches the soul of the Italian 
nation; Austria the body whenever it shows signs of 
life; and on every member of that body is enthroned 
an absolute prince, viceroy in turn under either of 
these powers." ^ 

And yet was the Italy of 1849 in grim reality the 
Italy of 1815? Had the efforts of Mazzini and his 
disciples borne no fruit? Had the blood of thousands 
of willing martyrs been shed absolutely in vain? We 
can forgive an Italian of 1849 ^^^ thinking that it was 
so; but we should be hopelessly deceived were we to 
share the illusion. Look on the contrast for your- 
selves. The Italians of 18 15 were willing slaves. 
Italy itself seemed to lie prostrate and benumbed. 
Not a sign of life, not an emotion, seemed to stir her 
torpid soul. But now Italy had at last awakened from 
the death-sleep of centuries. The insurrectionary 
movements of 1821, of 1831, of 1848, proved at least 
that the Italians were conscious of their degradation, 
that they had begun to dare to hope. Nay more, their 
aspirations had become articulate. "They desire," 
said one of them, "they desire to live — to live with all 
the faculties of their being; to live as God commands; 
to walk onward with the rest of the world; to have 
brethren and not spies around them; to have instruc- 
tors and not masters; to have a home and not a prison" 
(Mazzini). Most of them had begun to long for free- 

' Mazzini. 



Cavour 245 

dom, and not a few to long for unity. To say the 
truth, the desire for unity was far less universal than 
from the writings of Mazzini you might suppose. 
Here and there, there were, no doubt, groups of Maz- 
zinist disciples who could rise above the conception 
of provincial patriotism, and look beyond to the unifi- 
cation of the whole peninsula; but the universal long- 
ing, the pressing need that came home to every one, 
was not unity but freedom. It was only as they gradu- 
ally began to realize that the one was practically 
impossible without the other that the broader concep- 
tion was entertained. Gradually it was borne in upon 
them that so long as Austria was supreme in Italy, no 
permanent concession in the direction of constitutional 
liberties could be wrung from the wretched despots 
like King Bomba, who moved only in obedience to the 
strings which Austria pulled. And thus it was that 
Neapolitans and Tuscans, Romans and Piedmontese, 
alike began to realize the truth which Mazzini was 
constantly enforcing, that a war, a "bloody and inex- 
orable" war, with x^ustria was the first necessary step 
toward the permanent acquisition of domestic liberties. 
But more than this, the Italians had for a brief 
moment, in the spring of 1848, felt upon their brows 
the breath of liberty. For a moment a vision of the 
glorious future had been revealed in the spirit to those 
who might never see it in the flesh. 

" ' Italia Una ! ' Now the war-cry rang 

From Alp to Etna: and her dreams were done, 

And she herself had wakened into life, 

And stood full armed and free: and all her sons 

Knew they were happy to have looked on her. 

And felt it beautiful to die for her." 



246 The Makers of Modern Italy 

And is this nothing? Is it nothing in a people's 
history that, after the sleep of ages, they have wakened 
into life? Is it nothing that the soul is free, even 
though the limbs be still fettered with the chains of 
degrading despotism? Nay, were there no other dif- 
fernce between the two epochs, there was this — Maz- 
zini had lived. The Italy of 1849 had seen Mazzini, 
had listened to his voice, had begun at least to lisp 
some of the noble lessons that he came to teach. 

The Italy, then, of 1849 was far other than the 
Italy of 1815. And the difference was due primarily, 
and in the main, to the lofty teaching of the great 
prophet. And yet in no respect was the improved 
condition of Italy in 1849 more marked than in the 
fact that Mazzini's ideal had been already shattered. 
Forgive me if I seem to speak a paradox. It is an 
eternal truth that life is only possible through death. 
For modern Italy to live it was necessary that Maz- 
zini's ideal should die. "The Italy of his ideal," as 
Mr. Fyffe has said, "was a republic, embracing every 
member of the race, purged of the priestcraft and 
superstition which had degraded the man to the slave ; 
indebted to itself alone for its independence, and con- 
solidated by the reign of equal law. The rigidity with 
which Mazzini adhered to his own great project in its 
completeness, and his impatience of any bargaining 
away of national rights, excluded him from the work 
of those practical politicians and men of expedients 
who in 1859 effected with foreign aid the first step 
toward Italian union." Mazzini, in fact, as I said 
last time, had done his work, all the work, perhaps, 
which a man of his temperament was capable of accom- 



Cavour 247 

plishing for Italy. He had given to the practical poli- 
ticians a goal at which to aim, but a goal which by his 
means might never have been reached. But it was not 
only the republican ideal which was shattered. The 
neo-Guelphic party — the party which "looked to a new 
and glorious Italy, regenerated not by philosophic 
republicanism or the sword of a temporal monarch, 
but by the moral force of a reformed and reforming 
papacy" — they, too, I say, had been obliged to abandon 
their ideal. D'Azeglio had seen through this delusion 
as early as 1847, for in that year he writes from Rome: 
"I am convinced the magic of Pio Nono will not last. 
He is an angel, but he is surrounded by demons; he 
has a disordered state and corrupt elements, and he 
will not be able to combat the obstacles." The truth 
of his prediction was quickly confirmed. Pio Nono 
was a mild and kindly ecclesiastic, but utterly incapa- 
ble of putting the papacy at the head of such a mission 
as this, even had he realized its splendor or necessity. 
Gioberti himself, the sometime leader of the neo- 
Guelphic party, published in 185 1 the Riiinova- 
mento^ a. work in which he publicly proclaimed the 
abandonment of his former policy and clearly accepted 
the principle of a Sardinian hegemony as the inevit- 
able basis of Italian independence. "Except the 
young sovereign who rules Piedmont, I see no one in 
Italy who could undertake our emancipation. Instead 
of imitating Pius, Ferdinand, and Leopold, who vio- 
lated their sworn compacts, he maintains his with relig- 
ious observance — vulgar praise in other times, but 
to-day not small, being contrary to example." 

Gradually, then, the hopes of all Italian patriots, 



248 The Makers of Modern Italy 

of all Italian parties, whatever their special predilec- 
tions previously had been, came to be concentrated on 
the Sardinian monarchy; began to focus themselves 
on the young Sardinian king. And the traditions of 
the Sardinian dynasty, of the house of Savoy, were 
eminently favorable to the part they were called upon 
to play. We have already seen how they were estab- 
lished by rather dubious diplomacy in their subalpine 
kingdom. We have seen, too, that whatever of life 
there was in Italy in the eighteenth century was con- 
centrated in this province. In the insurrectionary 
movements of 182 1 and 1833 there was little, perhaps, 
to distinguish the action of the rulers of Piedmont from 
that of the rest of the Italian princes. Certainly 
Mazzini had little reason for distinguishing between 
the despotism of Naples and that of Piedmont. And 
yet there was a feeling among Italian liberals — and it 
was well grounded — that the government of Piedmont 
differed in kind from that of the other states. The 
ruler of Piedmont was, at any rate, alone among 
Italian temporal rulers, a native — akin in speech and 
blood to the people over whom he reigned. But more 
than that, alone among Italian rulers, Charles Albert 
of Piedmont had, in the spring of 1848, granted a 
parliamentary constitution to his people of his own 
free will. And above all, he had been the first to 
unsheath the sword in the holy war of Italian inde- 
pendence, and to make Austria feel that powerful as 
she was she had to confront in Italy a people deter- 
mined to be free, determined to be one. 

On his accession to the throne in 1849, Victor Em- 
manuel was a young man of twenty-nine. The pros- 



Cavour 249 

pect for Piedmont and for Italy was far from bright, 
yet there was nothing of undignified despair in the 
attitude which he maintained in the negotiations with 
Radetsky for a truce with Austria. "Marshal," he 
said, "sooner than subscribe to such conditions I 
would lose a hundred crowns. What my father has 
sworn I will maintain. If you wish a war to the death, 
be it so! I will call my nation to arms once more, 
and you will see of what Piedmont is capable in a 
general rising. If I fall, it shall be without shame. 
My house knows the road of exile but not of dishonor. " 
The firm, determined character of the young king 
comes out clearly at the outset, and his honesty no 
less. "What my father has sworn I will maintain." 
Throughout life he was faithful to the promise. "All 
our efforts," he declared in the first proclamation he 
issued to his people, "must be directed to maintain 
our honor untarnished, to heal the wounds of our coun- 
try, to consolidate our liberal institutions. To this 
undertaking I conjure all my people, to it I will pledge 
myself by a solemn oath, and I await from the nation 
the exchange of help, affection, and confidence." 

From the purpose indicated in this solemn pledge 
Victor Emmanuel never swerved; and though the out- 
look was for the time being black enough, there was 
not a little encouragement, as we have seen, for the 
man who would look back and mark the path that Italy 
had traversed in the last few years. Nay, even the 
immediate past was not devoid of all encouragement. 
True, the campaign of 1849 had ended in unrelieved 
disaster, but for all that it marked a most important 
epoch in the history of the Italian movement. "It 



250 The Makers of Modern Italy 

baptized," as Mr. Symonds has well said, "the cause 
of Italian independence with the best blood of Pied- 
mont; it gave it a royal martyr, and it pledged the 
dynasty of Savoy to a progressive policy from which 
it never afterward for a single moment deviated." 

Meanwhile, amid the general reaction in Italy, Vic- 
tor Emmanuel and his prime minister, D'Azeglio, set 
themselves with steadfast courage to reorganize the 
Sardinian kingdom and carry out constitutional reforms 
of far-reaching character. But they had first to deal 
with domestic disaffection, stirred up in Genoa by the 
republican irreconcilables who still followed Mazzini's 
lead, Mazzini and his friends did not scruple to im- 
pute to the Sardinian government the basest treachery 
in connection with the events of the recent war and 
the still more recent peace. "Better Italy enslaved 
than handed over to the son of the traitor Carlo 
Alberto," Mazzini was utterly intractable. Fortu- 
nately, his work was soon to be taken up by hands more 
competent than his to carry it through to a reasonable 
consummation. 

Undeterred by domestic disaffection, D'Azeglio and 
Victor Emmanuel went steadily forward in the path of 
reform. Their first difficulty was in connection with 
ecclesiastical affairs. In the little kingdom of Sar- 
dinia there were at that time forty-one bishoprics, over 
fourteen hundred canonries, and eighteen thousand 
people who had assumed the monastic habit. In fact, 
taking the whole population through, one person in 
every two hundred and fourteen was an ecclesiastic. 
Now this in itself is comparatively an unimportant 
matter. But when you recollect that in Sardinia the 



Cavour 251 

church still claimed exclusive jurisdiction over all 
ecclesiastics; the right of .affording asylum to crimi- 
nals, and all the rest of the anomalous privileges of 
the medieval system, you will understand the magni- 
tude of the difficulty by which the reformer was con- 
fronted. For a parallel situation in English history 
you must go back to the time when Henry II. was 
falling foul of Becket by attempting to limit ecclesi- 
astical jurisdictions in the famous constitutions of 
Clarendon. Victor Emmanuel, like Henry II., was 
anxious to reduce all men to an equality before the 
civil law. The continued existence of the clerical 
courts in all the plenitude of power, the vast preten- 
sions of the Jesuits to the exclusive control of educa- 
tion and the censorship of domestic morality, were, 
however, utterly inconsistent with this reasonable and 
laudable ambition. Victor Emmanuel, profoundly 
anxious to avoid friction between the civil and ecclesi- 
astical authorities, despatched to the pope, in the 
autumn of 1849, a special envoy — Count Siccardi. 
The pope firmly declined to sanction any change in 
the relations between church and state in Sardinia. 
"The Holy Father," said the papal representative, 
"was willing to please the king of Sardinia as far as 
going into the antechamber of the devil, but into his 
very chamber he would not go " 

Despite this check the king, with the assistance of 
Siccardi, determined to push on the work of reform; 
the Foro Ecclesiastico (or chief clerical tribunal) was 
finally abolished, and the privileges and immunities of 
the vast army of ecclesiastics were sensibly curtailed. 
The clerical organs thundered denunciations against 



2 5^ The Makers of Modern Italy 

the infidel king and his heretic ministers. Luckily for 
them, a famous act of clerical intolerance just at this 
time immensely strengthened the hands of both the 
king and the ministry in dealing with the question. 
When the minister of commerce, Santa Rosa, died, 
shortly after the passing of the Siccardine law, he was 
refused the last sacrament, though he was admittedly 
a man of blameless life, and though he died in com- 
plete communion with the Roman Church. Nothing 
could have better served the cause of ecclesiastical 
reform. 

I have dwelt on this matter in some detail because 
it was of immense importance on two grounds. In 
the first place, it marks the beginning of the breach 
between the Roman pontiff and the Sardinian king, 
the man who was destined to be king of Italy, and to 
establish the seat of government under the shadow of 
the Vatican itself. The breach thus created is not 
healed yet, and though the difficulties of the situation 
are gradually diminishing, we still must recollect that 
for twenty years at least the contest between the papal 
and the civil power constituted the hardest of the prob- 
lems which the makers of modern Italy were called 
upon to solve. On another ground the matter is im- 
portant, since it served to introduce to Italian politics 
the great statesman whose name is peculiarly associ- 
ated with this question, Count Camillo di Cavour. 

During the debates on the abolition of ecclesiastical 
jurisdiction Cavour gave strong support to the min- 
isterial policy. It was only by timely reform, as he 
reminded them, that revolution could be avoided. 
''Do not think," he said, "that the constitutional 



Cavour 253 

throne will be weakened; it will, on the contrary, be 
strengthened, and it will implant roots so profound in 
our soil" — mark his prophetic words — "that when 
revolution again threatens us, not only will the con- 
stitutional throne direct it, but that throne will group 
around itself all the living forces of Italy, and conduct 
the nation to the destinies which yet await it." 

In the splendor and in the certainty of that destiny 
Cavour had a profound belief. The important support 
he had recently given to the government claimed 
recognition at its hands, and in 1850 he joined the 
ministry of D'Azeglio as minister of commerce. His 
commanding intellect, his soaring but strictly honor- 
able ambition, his unbending will and slightly domi- 
neering temper were already recognized. "Look out 
what you are doing," said the king to D'Azeglio; 
"Cavour will soon be master of you all; he will dis- 
miss you; he will never be content till he is prime 
minister himself. " 

Born on the loth of August, 1810, Cavour was, like 
Mazzini, by birth a Piedmontese. His family belonged 
to the small exclusive aristocracy of Piedmont — per- 
haps the smallest, and certainly the proudest, aristoc- 
racy in Europe. One of his sponsors, it is interesting 
to note, was Pauline Borghese, a sister of the great 
Napoleon. Thus early did the connection between 
Cavour and the Bonapartes begin. Like other noble 
youths, he was educated at the military academy at 
Turin, and joined the army as an engineer in 1828. 
But the army was little to his taste. He had already 
begun to realize the abject condition of his native 
country, and to indulge himself in dreams for its re- 



254 The Makers of Modern Italy 

generation. The events of the French Revolution of 
1830 made a great impression on his mind — an impres- 
sion which he communicated to his comrades with too 
much freedom to please the authorities at home. In 
consequence of his indiscretion he was placed under 
semi-arrest in the Fort de Bard; and disgusted with 
the situation, he resigned his commission in 1831. 

The drift of his political opinions about this time 
may be gathered from a letter which he addressed to 
an English friend in December, 1829: 

"I congratulate you sincerely on the happy change 
which has taken place in the policy of your govern- 
ment. " (Referring, I suppose, to the Catholic emanci- 
pation act, carried by the Duke of Wellington and Sir 
Robert Peel.) "Whilst all Europe is walking with a 
firm step in the path of progress, unhappy Italy is 
borne down perpetually under the same system of civil 
and religious tyranny. Pity those who, with a soul 
made to develop the generous principles of civiliza- 
tion, are compelled to see their country brutalized by 
Austrian bayonets. Tell your countrymen that we are 
not undeserving of liberty; that if we have rotten 
members, we have also men who are worthy to enjoy 
the blessings of light. Forgive me if I wander, but 
my soul is weighed down under the weight of indigna- 
tion and sorrow." Cavour had already begun to take 
that profound interest in English politics which he 
maintained till his death. It is interesting to note 
that from this time onward he regularly took in the 
Times, the Morning Post, and the Econo7nist. 

But Cavour was by no means content even with 
such admirable sources of information as these. He 



Cavour 255 

was bent on making a profound study of the political, 
the social, and above all the economical, questions 
which were then agitating both England and the Con- 
tinent. Repeatedly we find him writing to friends in 
England for corn-law statistics, for government re- 
ports, for parliamentary blue books, and so forth — a 
species of interesting literature which is not, I fancy, 
in much demand even in the most "progressive" of 
free libraries in England. Studies such as these inev- 
itably led him to institute comparisons between the 
steady and moderated progress of a country like Eng- 
land and the ignoble stagnation of his own unhappy 
fatherland. He followed the reform agitation in Eng- 
land with the closest interest, and hailed the passing 
of the bill of 1832 as an emblem of hope for the liberal 
party throughout Europe — even for Italy. "And in 
the miserable position in which we are placed," he 
writes, "we need, indeed, a ray of hope. Pressed on 
the one side by Austrian bayonets, on the other by the 
furious excommunications of the pope, our condition 
is truly deplorable. Every free exercise of thought, 
every generous sentiment, is stifled, as if it were a 
sacrilege or a crime against the state. We cannot 
hope to obtain by ourselves any relief from such enor- 
mous misfortunes. . . . The voice of England alone 
can obtain for the people of the Romagna a support- 
able government, somewhat in harmony with the ideas 
and manners of our age." 

After leaving the army Cavour devoted his energies 
to agriculture and the management of his ancestral 
property at Leri. At the first blush agriculture has 
small attractions for an active-minded man. "The 



2^6 The Makers of Modern Italy 

habitue oi the salon," as Cavour himself writes, "feels 
a certain repugnance for works which begin by the 
analysis of dunghills, and end in the middle of cattle- 
sheds; but if he can get over his first repugnance he 
will find much to attract him." For Cavour himself, 
who when he started could not distinguish between a 
turnip and a potato, the experience was of the greatest 
value. The monotony of the pursuit, moreover, was 
relieved by periodical travels, in the course of which 
he visited this country,^ Ireland, and Scotland. Here 
he pursued with the most ardent zeal the studies in 
social and political affairs which had so long engaged 
him. The condition of the poor, the working of the 
new poor law, the industrial wealth, the expanding 
commerce, and above all the parliamentary govern- 
ment of this country, all engaged his serious atten- 
tion. Night after night the young Italian, destined 
to become the real founder of parliamentary govern- 
ment in Italy, was to be seen in the strangers' gallery, 
following with the utmost interest the debates, and 
making himself thoroughly conversant with the rules 
of procedure, the methods of conducting business, and 
above all, with the niceties of parliamentary tactics in 
the English House of Commons. To Cavour the ex- 
perience thus gained was of course of incalculable 
value in later years. 

Meanwhile he began about 1835 ^^ contribute 
articles on the English poor law, on communism, on 
free trade, on railways, and on a number of kindred 
topics, to various journals and reviews. In 1843 he 
published in the Bibliotheque Ufiiverselle de Geiieve an 

^England; these lectures were delivered at Oxford. 



Cavour 257 

article on Ireland, distinguished by all his characteris- 
tic sobriety of judgment and sturdy common sense. 
Shortly before this, in 1842, he had taken an active 
share in the foundation of the Agricultural Society of 
Piedmont, an association designed not merely for the 
dissemination of correct ideas on stock-breeding and 
chemical manures, but also to bring together all the 
leading men who held liberal opinions in Piedmont. 
These enlightened leaders had to advance with the 
utmost caution. In 1847 Cavour, in conjunction with 
Santa Rosa, Cesare Balbo, and others, founded a new 
journal, named the Risorgimento^ for the purpose of 
disseminating constitutional ideas of government. 
The program of the constitutional party at this time 
was brief but pregnant: "Independence of Italy, union 
between the princes and peoples, progress in the path 
of reform, and a league between the Italian states." 

In this program there is, you may notice, a notable 
omission. It speaks of independence, it speaks of a 
league between the states, it points to federation; 
there is no hint of unity. And, indeed, at this moment 
Cavour and the Italian liberals were content to let the 
latter question bide its time. That unity would ulti- 
mately be achieved they were assured; but the first 
essential was independence. Hence the inveterate 
hostility with which this party was pursued by the 
Mazzinist enthusiasts. The Mazzinists regarded all 
compromise, all temporizing, as being in itself a han- 
dling of the accursed thing. They never would realize 
that in politics and in diplomacy the half, as the Greek 
proverb has it, is often better than the whole. No 
man ever realized this truth more profoundly than 



258 The Makers of Modern Italy 

Cavour. "Let us," he was wont to say, "do one thing 
at a time; let us get rid of the Austrians, and we shall 
see — nous verrons.'" At the same time he pushed on 
to the utmost of his power internal reform in Pied- 
mont. "What is the good," he asked, "of reforms 
which lead to no conclusion and terminate nothing? 
Let us demand a constitution. Since the government 
can be no longer maintained on the bases that have 
hitherto supported it, let it replace them by others 
comformable to the spirit of the time, to the progress 
of civilization; let it replace them before it is too late, 
before social authority falls into dissolution amid the 
clamors of the people." Mark well those words; they 
would form a fitting text for the whole of Cavour' s 
political career: "Let it replace them before social 
authority falls into dissolution amid the clamors of the 
people." Reform, primarily for its own sake; but, 
not less, to anticipate, to forestall, to cut the ground 
from under the feet of destructive revolution. That 
is the position of a true liberal; that is the position 
of a genuine conservative. 

The demand was granted ; a constitutio7i^ or statuto^ 
was conceded, and in 1848 Count Cavour took his seat 
as member for Turin in the first Parliament of Pied- 
mont. 

Thanks to the experience he had gained in Eng- 
land, Cavour was from the first the molder of the 
parliamentary system in his own country. But on his 
first entrance into active political life he was by no 
means popular. In times of revolutionary excitement 
wise and moderate men very seldom are. By the ultra- 
democrats — the noisy remnants of the Mazzinist 



Cavour 259 

party — he was regarded as a reactionary aristocrat ; 
by his own order, on the other hand, he was shunned 
as a dangerous revolutionist. But by the rigor and 
ability with which he supported the Siccardian law for 
the abolition of clerical jurisdictions he managed to 
conciliate in time the respect of all moderate men. 

Hence on the death of Santa Rosa he was, as we 
have seen, appointed minister of commerce and agri- 
culture. This office gave him the opportunity of 
putting into practice those sound economical and 
financial principles which he had imbibed for the most 
part in this country, and in the truth of which he had 
so profound a conviction. He pushed on reform 
apace; he improved the internal means of communi- 
cation, removed burdensome restrictions on trade, and 
concluded commercial treaties with England, France, 
Belgium, and other powers. His reforms enormously 
increased the industrial resources of the country, and 
rendered it more capable of sustaining the arduous 
part it had to play in the immediate future. But not 
even the wisest can escape the reproach of fools, and 
after a brief official career marked by exceptional 
activity Cavour was obliged to retire. He took the 
opportunity thus afforded him of paying another visit 
to his friends in England and enlightening the best 
English opinion on the existing situation in Italy. It 
was indeed assuming every day a more and more crit- 
ical complexion. The liberal and reforming policy of 
the Sardinian government was beginning to excite the 
indignation of the reactionary powers. Austria and 
Prussia indeed had the effrontery to suggest to Victor 
Emmanuel that he would best consult his own interests 



26o The Makers of Modern Italy 

by imitating the reactionary policy of the vassal courts 
of Florence and Naples, Modena and Parma. The 
king, in reply, courteously but firmly intimated to his 
distinguished advisers that he was master in his own 
house, that he in no way interfered with what other 
sovereigns thought fit to do, and that he desired on his 
part perfect liberty of action! The ecclesiastical situ- 
ation was not less fraught with difficulty than the 
political. The debates on the Siccardian law had in 
fact raised the whole question of the relations of 
church and state in Italy — a question everywhere and 
always thorny, but rendered in Italy a hundred-fold 
more difficult by the existence of the temporal domin- 
ions of the papacy. Such were some of the many 
problems confronting Cavour when in 1852 he became 
prime minister of Sardinia. As to his immediate 
policy Cavour was perfectly clear. His program is 
thus stated by himself: 

"Piedmont must begin by raising herself, by re- 
establishing in Europe, as well as in Italy, a position 
and a credit equal to her ambition. Hence there must 
be a policy unswerving in its aims, but flexible and 
various as to the means employed, embracing the 
exchequer, military reorganization, diplomacy, and 
religious affairs." 

There are, it has been well said, two qualities essen- 
tial to a statesman — the one is prudence, the other is 
imprudence. Cavour possessed the two qualities in 
combination in an exceptional degree. He knew that 
in the affairs of states, as in the affairs of individuals, 
there comes a time when rashness is the height of 
prudence. 



Cavour 261 

" He either fears his fate too much, 

Or his deserts are small, 
That dares not put it to the touch 

To gain or lose it all." 

Such a crisis had arrived in the nistory of Sardinia 
when, in 1854, the western powers embarked on the 
Crimean War. Realize to yourselves the position of 
Piedmont at this most critical juncture. One of many 
states in Italy, not the oldest, not the largest, not the 
richest, loaded with debt, prostrate beneath the recent 
recollection of a crushing military disaster, by no 
means on the best of terms with its immediate neigh- 
bors, and among the European "Powers" practically 
unrecognized — this was the state which proposed in 
1854 to join the western powers in the defense of the 
dominions of the Porte. The negotiations were pro- 
tracted for months. Among his colleagues Cavour 
stood absolutely alone in advocating this seemingly 
desperate enterprise. To them the whole scheme was 
sheer insanity. But the king stood firmly by Cavour. 
The ministers were permitted to resign, and in Janu- 
ary, 1855, the memorable treaty was signed by which 
Sardinia pledged herself to go to the assistance of the 
western powers with fifteen thousand (afterward in- 
creased to twenty-five thousand) men. "It was," says 
Massari, "a solemn moment for the king, and decided 
the fate of his country; that treaty was the fortune of 
Italy. To overcome so many difficulties the genius 
of Cavour was not enough ; there was needed also the 
firmness of Victor Emmanuel, for without him the 
treaty would not have been concluded." I have 
quoted Massari's judgment, for it insists on an impor- 



262 The Makers of Modern Italy 

tant truth, realized to the full by the king's devoted 
subjects in Italy, but not properly appreciated in Eng- 
land, viz., the immensely important part played at 
every great crisis in the drama of Italian unification 
by Victor Emmanuel himself. Here in the Crimean 
treaty; again after the peace of Villafranca; again in 
regard to the Neapolitan question in 1861, and finally 
in the extremely delicate and difficult negotiation of 
1870 — in all these crises it was the courage and firm- 
ness and tact of the king himself which surmounted 
every difficulty and insured success. 

But in regard to Sardinia's intervention in the 
Crimea you may fairly ask — What was her interest in 
the quarrel, what right had she to interfere, what 
could she hope to gain in return for the risks she ran? 
Cavour himself anticipated the interrogation. In a 
great speech on the treaty he showed that in posses- 
sion of the Bosporus and Dardanelles Russia would 
be irresistible in the Mediterranean. "But I may be 
asked," he said, "what matters it to us if Russia has 
the mastery in the Mediterranean? It may be said 
that that mastery does not belong to Italy nor to Sar- 
dinia; it is now the possession of England and of 
France; instead of two masters the Mediterranean will 
have three. I cannot believe that such sentiments can 
have an echo in this assembly. They would ainouiii to 
a giving up of our hopes of the futici^e! How will this 
treaty avail Italy?" he concluded. "I will tell you. 
In the only way in which we, or perhaps any one, can 
help Italy in the present condition of Europe. The 
experience of past years and of past centuries has 
proved how little conspiracies, plots, revolutions, and 



Cavour iS^ 

ill-directed movements have profited Italy. So far 
from doing so, they have proved the greatest calamity 
which has afflicted this fair part of Europe; not only 
from the vast amount of human misery they have en- 
tailed, not only because they have been the cause and 
the excuse for acts of increasing severity, but espe- 
cially because these continual conspiracies, these re- 
peated revolutions, these ineffectual risings, have had 
the effect of lessening the esteem, and even to a cer- 
tain extent the sympathy, which the other nations of 
Europe once felt for Italy. Now I believe that the 
first condition of any improvement in the fate of Italy 
is that we should restore to her her good name, and 
so act that all nations, governments, and peoples 
should render justice to her great qualities. And to 
this end two things are necessary : first, that we should 
prove to Europe that Italy has sufficient civil virtue to 
govern herself with order and form herself for liberty, 
and that she is capable of receiving the most perfect 
system of government known to us; and secondly, that 
we should show that in military virtue we are not in- 
ferior to our ancestors. You have already rendered 
one service to Italy by the conduct you have pursued 
for seven years, proving in the clearest way to Europe 
that the Italians are able to govern themselves with 
wisdom, prudence, and loyalty. It remains for you to 
render her no less a service, if not even a greater; it 
remains for you to show that the sons of Italy can 
fight like brave men on the fields of glory. And I am 
persuaded that the laurels which our soldiers will 
gather in the plains of the East will do more for the 
future of Italy than all that has been done by those 



264 The Makers of Modern Italy 

who have thought by declamation and writing to effect 
her regeneration. " 

Never was prudent calculation more exactly ful- 
filled, never was rash resolve more fully justified. 
The conduct of the Sardinian contingent in the 
Crimea not only wiped out the disgrace of Custozza 
and Novara; it gave to Sardinia for the first time a 
footing among the "Powers"; above all, it enabled 
her to take her part on terms of equality in the diplo- 
matic negotiations which resulted in the peace of 
Paris. 

The congress of Paris, to which Cavour was ad- 
mitted, despite the protests of Austria, proved to be 
the turning-point in the fortunes of Sardinia and of 
Italy. In the English representatives, Lord Cowley 
and Lord Clarendon, and — a still more important mat- 
ter — in the emperor of the French, Cavour was assured 
of sympathetic auditors when he was at last permitted 
to bring the condition of Italy before the congress. 
For their information he described the condition of the 
several states in Italy, picturing the misgovernment of 
Naples especially in the most repulsive colors. Lord 
Clarendon in consequence proposed remonstrance with 
King: Ferdinand. But Cavour, with characteristic 
courage, even in the presence of the Austrian minister, 
impatiently brushed away all secondary causes and 
went straight to the point. The main cause, he said, 
of the state of things they all agreed in deprecating 
was Austria. "Austria is the arch-enemy of Italian 
independence; the permanent danger to the only free 
nation in Italy, the nation I have the honor to repre- 
sent. ' ' Austria, on the other hand, despite the urgency 



Cavour 265 

of England and France, declined to hold out any hope 
of an amelioration of the scandal of her rule in Italy. 
After the congress, Cavour met Lord Clarendon and 
put the matter briefly thus: "That which has passed 
in the congress proves two things : first, that Austria 
is decided to persist in her system of oppression and 
violence toward Italy; secondly, that the forces of 
diplomacy are impotent to modify that system. See 
the consequences for Piedmont. With the irritation 
on one side and the arrogance of Austria on the other, 
there are but two alternatives to take: reconcile our- 
selves to Austria and the pope, or prepare to declare 
war at the Court of Vienna in a future not far distant. 
If the first part is preferable, I must on my return to 
Turin advise my king to call to power the friends of 
Austria and the pope. If the second hypothesis is 
best, my friends and I will not shrink from preparing 
for a terrible war — a war to the death. " Lord Claren- 
don was sympathetic, but Cavour saw clearly that he 
was likely to get from England little else than moral 
support. He therefore prepared to pin his faith to the 
vanity and ambition of Napoleon III. "What can I 
do for Italy?" Napoleon had asked in 1855. Cavour 
told him frankly that he could do much, and more- 
over, showed him how it could be done. That 
interview was the foundation of the famous Franco- 
Sardinian alliance formally consummated some three 
years later. 

During the next two years (1856-58) the relations 
of Austria and Sardinia became every day more 
strained. It was obvious that the situation could have 
but one issue. For the moment the good understand- 



266 The Makers of Modern Italy 

ing between Italy and France, on which everything 
depended, was interrupted by the dastardly attempt 
of Orsini upon the emperor's life. The incident had 
another unfortunate result, as it served to embitter the 
relations between England and the Continental monar- 
chies. The addresses of congratulation addressed to 
Napoleon teemed with insulting allusions to this 
country, whence Orsini had started on his fanatical 
errand. One such urged that "London, the infamous 
haunt in which machinations so infernal are planned, 
should be destroyed forever." And Napoleon him- 
self spoke of England as a "den of assassins." How 
far England deserved the appellation no one could 
judge better than Napoleon himself. 

Notwithstanding, however, this untoward incident, 
Cavour and the emperor had their famous interview at 
Plombieres in the summer of 1858. The result of it 
was for the time a secret, though Victor Emmanuel 
was heard to say that next year he would be king of 
Italy or plain M. de Savoie. The speech with which 
the king opened the parliamentary session of 1859 
pointed in the same direction. The concluding para- 
graph, which has become memorable in history, is said 
to have been inspired by the emperor himself. "Our 
country," said the king, "small in territory, has 
acquired credit in the councils of Europe, because she 
is great in the idea she represents, in the sympathy that 
she inspires. This situation is not exempt from perils, 
for while w^e respect treaties, we are not insensible to 
the cry of anguish (gnWo di dolo?'e) that comes up to us 
from many parts of Italy. Strong in concord, confi- 
dent in our good right, we await with prudence and 



Cavour 267 

resolution the decrees of Divine Providence." The 
effect of this speech is described by Massari, himself 
an eye-witness of the exciting scene, as simply electric. 
"At every period," he says, "the speech was inter- 
rupted by clamorous applause and cries of Viva il Re! 
But when he came to the words grido di dolore^ there 
was an enthusiasm quite indescribable. Senators, 
deputies, spectators, all sprang to their feet with a 
bound, and broke into passionate acclamations. The 
ministers of France, Russia, Prussia, and England 
were utterly astonished and carried away by the mar- 
velous spectacle. The face of the ambassador of 
Naples was covered with a gloomy pallor. We poor 
exiles did not even attempt to wipe away the tears that 
flowed unrestrainedly from our eyes as we frantically 
clapped our hands in applause of that king who had 
remembered our sorrows, who had promised us a coun- 
try. Before the victories, the plebiscites, and the 
annexations conferred on him the crown of Italy he 
reigned in our hearts; he was our king!" Even after 
this declaration efforts were made by neutral powers, 
notably by England, to avert the coming war, but 
Austria insisted as a preliminary on Sardinian disarma- 
ment. Cavour firmly refused. In March he again 
met Napoleon in Paris. The terms of the alliance 
were finally arranged. On the 23d of April the Aus- 
trian ultimatum demanding immediate disarmament 
reached Turin, and within three days the Sardinian 
army was on the march for Lombardy. "It is done," 
said Cavour to some friends. '''' Aha j acta est. We 
have made some history, and now to dinner." 

"People of Italy," so the royal procla,ra^tion ran, 



268 The Makers of Modern Italy 

"Austria assails Piedmont because I have maintained 
the cause of our common country in the councils of 
Europe, because I was not insensible to your cries of 
anguish. Thus she now violently breaks the treaties 
she has never respected. 

"So to-day the right of the nation is complete, and 
I can with a free conscience fulfil the vow I made on 
the tomb of my parent by taking up arms to defend 
my throne, the liberties of my people, the honor of the 
Italian name. I fight for the right of the whole nation. 
We confide in God and in our concord ; we confide in 
the valor of the Italian soldiers, in the alliance of the 
noble French nation; we confide in the justice of pub- 
lic opinion. I have no other ambition than to be the 
first soldier of Italian independence. Viz'a F Italia.'' 

On the 13th of May the king met at Genoa the 
emperor of the French, "his generous ally," who had 
come to "liberate Italy from the Alps to the Adri- 
atic." The two sovereigns went together to the front. 
For a month the allies carried all before them; on the 
4th of June they won the great victory of Magenta; 
on the 8th they entered Milan; and on the 24th they 
won the double battle of Solferino and San Martino — 
the crowning glory of a brilliant campaign. And 
then — the "magnanimous ally" stopped short. He 
met the Emperor Francis Joseph at Villafranca, and 
the terms of an armistice by which Lombardy was to 
be united with Piedmont, while Venice was left to 
Austria, were arranged. It is a barren task to can- 
vass Napoleon's motives for this extraordinary step. 
Possibly, as Cavour afterward believed, it was due 
more to the impulse of the moment than to any pre- 



Cavour 269 

conceived design. Enough to note the results. To 
the peoples of the subject provinces, to the Venetians, 
to the Tuscans, to the Modenese, above all, to the 
Romagnuoli, who had looked for speedy emancipation 
from despotic masters, the news came as a calamitous 
disappointment. Cavour at the moment could attrib- 
ute it to nothing but treachery, calmly calculated and 
cruelly practiced. Victor Emmanuel, though not less 
bitterly grieved and disappointed than his ministers, 
alone retained some measure of composure, some per- 
ception of the advantages already secured. 

The anger of Cavour at the emperor's treachery 
was unbounded. On learning the news he instantly 
departed for the camp, and regardless alike of diplo- 
matic etiquette and ministerial decencies, he showered 
reproaches indifferently on both the sovereigns. He 
besought his master to repudiate the terms and decline 
to accept Lombardy under these humiliating condi- 
tions. On the king's refusal to accept this rash advice 
he immediately resigned and withdrew to his farms at 
Leri. This once only in his whole career did his feel- 
ings get the better of his judgment, and well may he 
be forgiven. Of his almost superhuman labors in the 
period just before the war the world, says his biog- 
rapher Bianchi, will never know. But history in its 
justice will relate how in the midst of such a boiling 
over of violent passions, of mortal hatreds, of gener- 
ous excitement, of storms and worries indescribable, 
he remained imperturbably serene, calculating the 
current events, and knowing how to master men and 
things to hit the best opportunity for action. Though 
he held in his hand the fermenting revolution, never 



270 The Makers of Modern Italy 

did he once depart from the course of patient moder- 
ation which alone could save the Italian question from 
becoming lacerated by the claws of the Austrian eagle 
in that last and most difficult period of the negoti- 
ations. His appetite for work was prodigious. At 
one and the -same time he was president of the coun- 
cil, minister of foreign affairs, minister of war, minister 
of the interior. He had a bed in the war office, and 
during the night he walked in his dressing-gown from 
one department to the other, giving directions as to 
police regulations, diplomatic correspondence, and 
preparations for war, inflaming every one by his ex- 
ample of laboriousness and patriotism. "We have a 
government, a chamber, a constitution," the Pied- 
montese were wont to say; "the name for it all is 
Cavour. " Xo wonder, then, that the breakdown of 
that which w^as especially his work — the French alli- 
ance — should have prostrated him. 

But the king's judgment at this most agitating 
crisis was more sound than his. He was grieved to 
the heart by the turn events had taken, but he saw 
w^hat Cavour failed to see, that by the victories of 1859 
much had been achieved. "The political unity of 
Italy, since Xovara a possibility, has become since 
Villafranca a necessity." The stain of Xovara had 
been wiped out; Austria had been driven back behind 
the Mincio ; Lombardy was united with Piedmont in 
a great subalpine kingdom; and in the following year 
Tuscany, Parma, Modena, and the Roman legations 
were annexed by universal plebiscite to this new^ king- 
dom of Xorth Italy. Cavour recovered his spirits with 
a rebound, and after a few months' retirement returned 



Cavour 271 

to power. But his humiliations were not yet com- 
pleted; Napoleon's bill had still to be paid. Even the 
little he had accomplished he had not done for noth- 
ing. The "little account" proved when presented, as 
sometimes happens in less important bills, to be a 
very big account. In view of the large accessions to 
the Sardinian kingdom by the annexation of Tuscany, 
Romagna, and other provinces. Napoleon claimed the 
cession of Savoy. 

The history of this most discreditable transaction — 
a transaction which has left an indelible stain on 
French diplomacy — belongs more properly to my next 
lecture. Enough to say in this place that the demand 
was perforce conceded For all concerned it was a 
lamentable necessity, for the king especially it was 
*'the sacrifice most painful to his heart" to have to 
surrender to the foreigner "the cradle of his race." 
The rage of the Mazzinists and of Garibaldi knew no 
bounds. To them Cavour was a "low intriguer," 
Napoleon nothing better than a vulpine knave"; but 
all consideration of the justice of these epithets I must 
postpone. I must postpone also, as belonging more 
properly to Garibaldi's life, the last act in Cavour's 
political career, by which, thanks hardly less to him 
than to the intrepid volunteer, the kingdom of the 
South was united to the kingdom of the North, and 
Italy, her unity all but perfectly achieved, was free in 
glad reality from the Adriatic to the Alps. 

Cavour's life-work was nearly done. He lived to 
see his master proclaimed king of Italy — an Italy that 
included every member of the race except the Vene- 
tians and the Roman subjects of the pope. But he 



272 The Makers of Modern Italy 

saw clearly that even then much still remained to be 
accomplished. Thanks to the sword of Garibaldi and 
the enthusiasm which he excited in the South, Naples 
was annexed to the northern kingdom. But it had 
still to be assimilated. The people were lawless, tra- 
ditionally opposed to government of any sort, restless 
and troublesome. Yet nothing would persuade Cavour 
to have recourse to what are called "extraordinary 
measures." He shrank from the least breach of what 
he regarded as constitutional government. Possibly 
he was on this point over-sensitive. But if he was in 
error it was the error of a noble nature. Besides, 
parliamentary institutions in Italy — those institutions 
which Cavour had really created — were still on their 
trial. Little wonder that their creator should have 
shrunk from vitiating the experiment by unnecessary 
interference with its course. "Anybody," he was 
wont to say, "can govern with a state of siege." The 
idea of its application to the Sicilies was the haunt- 
ing nightmare of his last illness. "No state of siege, 
no state of siege," he was heard repeatedly to murmur. 
The other difficulty which Cavour left unsolved was 
infinitely greater, infinitely more intricate and perma- 
nent, and it was just such a difficulty as to demand for 
its solution, in especial measure, his exceptional abili- 
ties. The difficulty to which, of course, I refer, was 
that created by the attitude of the papacy in the 
question of the temporal power. I say nothing, for 
the present, of the hardly less difficult claim of the 
church to the exclusive regulation of education. The 
problem is thus clearly stated by a writer in the Edin- 
burgh Review for July, 1861: "There can be no ques- 



Cavour 273 

tion that the existence of an effective Italian power 
must involve a material modification in the condition 
of the court of Rome. A king of Italy and a sover- 
eign pontiff, both ruling, or laying claim to rule, over 
any considerable portion of Italian territory, are a con- 
tradiction pregnant with irreconcilable opposition. . . . 
The king of Italy can never become the supreme head 
of a national government so long as the pope continues 
to claim temporal and sovereign dominion in the penin- 
sula, for the authority of the crown would be exposed 
to perpetual antagonism within the pale of its own civil 
jurisdiction. On the other hand, it is also certain that 
to obtain from the court of Rome the necessary con- 
cessions for obviating such collisions with the royal 
authority involves what may well appear the hopeless 
task of modifying the most tenacious and unrelaxing 
of human constitutions. " Even the annexation of the 
Romagna to the kingdom of Italy in i860 had not 
been accomplished without f ulminations from the Vati- 
can, which culminated at last in the once dreadful ban 
of excommunication. Victor Emmanuel was little 
inconvenienced by the papal anathemas, but as a loyal 
and even devoted son of the church he was deeply 
hurt. You may read in Miss Godkin's admirable Life 
the noble, the tender appeal from the king to the pope, 
in which he prayed the holy father to sanction the 
act by which the peoples of the Romagna had with 
absolute spontaneity united themselves to the Italian 
kingdom, and to give-^his blessing to the holy work of 
Italian unification. The appeal was made in vain. 

But Cavour, no less loyal than his master to the 
church, never doubted that the further change must 



274 The Makers of Modern Italy- 

come with all its necessary consequences; that the 
new kingdom of Italy must eventually establish its 
seat of government in the ancient capital at Rome. 
"The choice of a capital is determined," he said, "by 
high moral considerations. It is the sentiment of the 
people that decides. Rome unites all the conditions, 
historical, intellectual, moral, which form the capital 
of a great state. ... It remains to convince the holy 
father that the church can be independent without 
the temporal power. 'Holy Father,' we will say, 'the 
temporal power is for you no longer a guarantee of 
independence. Renounce it, and we will give you that 
liberty which for three centuries you have in vain 
demanded from the great Catholic powers. . . . We 
are ready to proclaim in Italy this great principle: 
The Free Church in the Free State. ' 

"We hold," said Cavour, in one of his latest and 
most famous speeches (26 March, 1861,), "we hold 
that the independence and dignity of the supreme 
pontiff, as well as the independence of the church, will 
be secured by the separation of the two powers, and by 
a large application of the principles of liberty to the 
relations between civil and religious society." He 
next expressed a fervent hope that this change might 
be brought about by amicable arrangement with the 
Vatican. "But what," he continued, "what if, in cir- 
cumstances as fatal to the church as to Italy, the pope 
should prove inflexible and persist in rejecting all 
terms? Then, gentlemen, we should still not desist 
from proclaiming loudly the same principles; we 
should not desist from declaring that whether or not 
an understanding precede our entry into the eternal 



Cavour 275 

city, Italy will no sooner have pronounced the forfei- 
ture of the temporal power than she will emancipate 
the church from the state, and secure the liberty of 
the former on the amplest foundations." 

Most unfortunately, as we shall see next time, it 
was not to be. Every advance on the part of the 
Italian government was met by the inflexible, unvary- 
ing non possumus. But this was the dream in the con- 
templation of which the great statesman of Italian 
independence went to his eternal rest. Even his iron 
constitution succumbed at last to the superhuman 
exertions he had made, to the manifold and harassing 
anxieties he had undergone, to the alternations of 
exciting triumph and humiliating failure in which his 
last few years had been passed. The king was with 
him to the end. His thoughts, even in delirium, were 
still with the master he had served so faithfully, still 
for the country he had loved so well. "I will have no 
state of siege for the Neapolitans," he cried. "Li 
lavi, li lavi, li lavi!" Purify them, purify them, purify 
them. And then, with his last breath, to the attend- 
ant brother, "Frate, Frate, libera chiesa in libero 
stato." 

Thus Cavour passed away on the 5th of June, 1861. 
Well might the whole Italian people — from the king, 
who had lost not merely his ablest counsellor, but his 
dearest friend, down to the humblest peasant — well 
might the whole people be plunged in grief almost 
inconsolable. Well might they mourn for him who 
had struck off from their limbs the fetters of an alien 
yoke; who had guided them safely through the early 
stages - — always difficult and thorny — of parliamentary 



276 The Makers of Modern Italy 

government; who had not merely shown them the 
blessings of freedom, but had taught them how to use 
their freedom with moderation, with good sense, and — 
lesson most difficult of all to learn — with due regard 
to the liberties of others. "Italy a nation is the leg- 
acy, the lifework, of Cavour.' . . . Others hav^e been 
devoted to the cause of national liberation. . . . He 
knew how to bring it into the sphere of possibilities; 
he made it pure of any factious spirit; he led it away 
from barren Utopias, kept it clear of reckless con- 
spiracies, steered straight between revolution and 
reaction, and gave it an organized force, a flag, a 
government, and foreign allies." It is no disparage- 
ment to jVIazzini, it is no disparagement to Garibaldi, 
to say that neither of them could have done so much 
for Italy. And yet it may well be doubted whether 
Cavour himself could have accomplished all he did 
but for the assistance which indirectly he derived from 
the labors of men with whom he had nothing in com- 
mon save an ardent patriotism, a passionate longing 
for the realization of the national unity of their Italian 
fatherland. The prophet, th(^, statesman, the crusader, 
each was complementary in his lifework to the other. 
Possessed of widely diverse gifts, dissimilar in temper, 
and generally opposed in policy, but equal in abnega- 
tion of all selfish aims, equal in devotion to a noble 
cause, equal in the steadfast courage with which it was 
pursued, each will have his proper niche in the temple 
of Italian unity, for each contributed most precious 
and invaluable gifts to the building of that imperish- 
able fane. 

* Mazade : Life of Cavour. 



Cavour 277 



QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

I. How was the Italy of 1849 different from that of 1815? 
2. What two ideals for the unity of Italy had been abandoned 
at this time? 3. Why did the hopes of the patriots turn to 
Piedmont? 4. What pledge did Victor Emmanuel make in the 
cause of the nation? 5, Describe his difficulties with the pope 
concerning Sardinia. 6. Why was this struggle a significant 
one? 7. What were the circumstances of Cavour's early life? 
8. How did his studies in Italy and England fit him for future 
political leadership? 9. How did he influence public opinion 
through his writings? 10. Why did his party incur the hostility 
of the Mazzinists? 11. What saying of his would form a fitting 
text for his career? 12. What reforms did he promote both in 
parliament and as minister of commerce? 13. What problems 
confronted him when he became prime minister? 14. What 
was Cavour's reason for taking part in the Crimean War? 15. 
Describe Cavour's conferences at the Congress of Paris. 16. 
Describe the events at the opening.of parliament in 1859. 17. 
What effect had the Peace of Villafranca upon the Italians, 
Cavour, and the king? 18. What did the payment of Napo- 
leon's account involve? 19. What two great problems did 
Cavour leave unsolved? 20. Why was Victor Emmanuel 
excommunicated? 21. What was Cavour's ideal for the church? 



CHAPTER III 

GARIBALDI 
THE UNION OF NORTH AND SOUTH 

It will be for your convenience, I think, that I 
should briefly recall the position of affairs after the 
exciting events of 1859. By the terms of the Peace 
of Villafranca, Lombardy was to be united with Pied- 
mont, but Venice, with the fortresses of the Quadri- 
lateral, was to be retained by Austria: the fugitive 
rulers of the provinces of central Italy were to be 
restored, and in all other respects, the status quo ante 
1859, was to be completely reestablished. But the 
diplomatists at Zurich in 1859, like the diplomatists 
at Vienna in 1815, were counting without their host. 
"They seemed to think," writes Massari, "that they 
had only to declare that Leopold of Lorraine should 
go to Florence, Francis of Este to Modena, the Duch- 
esse de Bourboh to Parma, and the pope's legates to 
Bologna, Ferrara, Forte, and Ravenna. But the in- 
habitants had very different views. " On the outbreak 
of the war these prudent princes had all abandoned 
their several capitals, and had taken refuge either with 
the Austrian army or abroad. Provisional govern- 
ments were consequently formed at once in Tuscany, 
in Modena, and Parma, and in the Roman states; and 
deputations were sent to offer the allegiance of the 

278 



Garibaldi 279 

several states to Victor Emmanuel without delay. In 
the case of Tuscany, Modena, and Parma, the matter 
was comparatively simple, but the action of the Roman 
legations at once raised issues of enormous and far- 
reaching magnitude. Not merely did it raise the 
question, bristling with difficulties, of the relations of 
the new Italian kingdom and the temporal power, but 
it raised it at a time when the pope and his temporal 
dominions were under the immediate protection of 
Italy's "magnanimous ally." The definitive settle- 
ment of the whole matter was, however, postponed 
for the time being to the conclusion of the peace. 
The preliminaries of peace suggested the formation, 
outside the enlarged kingdom of Piedmont, of an 
Italian confederation, under the presidency of the 
pope, to which the Austrian provinces and the restored 
duchies w^ere to belong. 

No doubt, in the opinion of the rulers, such an 
arrangement was neat and satisfactory. Unfortu- 
nately it had one defect; it entirely failed to take 
account of the wishes of those who were most immedi- 
ately concerned. The peoples were inflexibly resolved 
neither to go back under a despotic yoke, nor to re- 
main practically independent and therefore powerless 
units, but to become the subjects of Victor Emmanuel, 
and take their place at once in the new Italian king- 
dom. "Italy," said Napoleon, in a farewell procla- 
mation to the troops, "Italy henceforth mistress of 
her destinies, will have only herself to blame if she 
does not make regular progress in order and liberty." 
He had made it further understood that he w^ould 
neither assist in nor permit the forcible restoration of 



28o The Makers of Modern Italy 

the petty despots of central Italy to their respective 
thrones. Now all that the people asked was to be 
allowed to mold their own destinies in accordance with 
Napoleon's hint. Each of the three divisions, Tus- 
cany, the Romagna, and Modena and Parma, now 
united under the title of Emilia, proceeded, therefore, 
to elect representative assemblies, which in every case 
unanimously resolved upon union with Piedmont. The 
king promised to do all he could to procure the sanc- 
tion of Europe to the scheme which they desired. 
France was willing, on conditions subsequently re- 
vealed; England, under the government of Lord 
Palmerston, was entirely favorable. But the ways of 
diplomacy are tedious, and neither Cavour nor the 
king was anxious in so delicate a matter to act in 
defiance of its dictates. 

The main obstacles, of course, were Austria and 
the pope, the latter being infinitely the more serious 
of the two. Not even the efforts of the French em- 
peror, without whose support the temporal power could 
not have subsisted for a day, could induce the Vatican 
to abate one iota of the claims it had so long sustained. 
Equally in vain were the remonstrances addressed by 
Victor Emmanuel to the pope. His message was to 
the last degree dignified and dutiful. "A devoted son 
of the church, I have always nourished," wrote the 
king, "a sense of sincere attachment, of veneration 
and respect, toward Holy Church and its august head. 
It never was, and it is not my intention to fail in my 
duties as a Catholic prince, or to curtail as far as in me 
lies those rights and that authority which the Holy 
See exercises on earth by divine commission from 



Garibaldi a8i 

heaven. But I also have sacred duties to fulfil before 
God and man, toward my country and toward the 
people whom Divine Providence has confided to my 
government. I have always sought to reconcile the 
duties of a Catholic prince with those of an independ- 
ent sovereign of a free and civilized nation, both in 
the internal rule of my states and in my foreign pol- 
icy. . . . These are dangerous times. It is not for 
me to indicate the safest way to restore quiet to our 
country, and to reestablish on a solid basis the pres- 
tige and authority of the Holy See in Italy. At the 
same time I believe it my duty to lay before your 
holiness an idea of which I am fully convinced. It is 
this: that taking into consideration the necessity of 
the times, the increasing force of the principle of 
nationality, the irresistible impulse which impels the 
people of Italy to unite and order themselves in con- 
formity with the model adopted by all civilized 
nations — an impulse which, I believe, demands my 
frank and loyal concurrence — such a state of things 
might be established as would reserve to the church 
its high dominion, and assure to the supreme pontiff a 
glorious post at the head of the Italian nation, while 
giving the people of the (papal) provinces a share in 
the benefits that a kingdom, strong and highly national, 
secures to the greater part of central Italy." 

But no remonstrance, no petition, no advice could 
in the least degree shake the Vatican in the stubbornly 
consistent attitude it had assumed. Denunciations 
were followed by anathemas, anathemas by excommu- 
nication. But when the several peoples had once 
more pronounced by universal plebiscite in favor of a 



282 The Makers of Modern Italy 

junction with Piedmont, not Tuscany only nor Emilia, 
but Bologna also and the other Roman legations, were 
united in irrevocable bonds with the kingdom of North 
Italy. On the 2d of April, i860, the first Italian Par- 
liament, representing a kingdom of eleven million 
people, assembled at Turin. ''The last time I opened 
Parliament," said the king's speech, "when Italy was 
sunk in sorrows and the state menaced by great dan- 
gers, faith in divine justice comforted me and augured 
well for our destinies. In very brief space of time an 
invasion was repelled. Lombardy liberated by the 
glorious achievements of the army, central Italy freed 
by the marvelous merit of her people ; and to-day I 
have here assembled around me the representatives of 
the rights and of the hopes of the nation. ... In 
turning our attention," he concluded, "to the new 
order of affairs, we invite all sincere opinions to a 
noble emulation that we may attain the grand end of 
the well-being of the people and the greatness of the 
country. It is no longer the Italy of the Romans, nor 
that of the Middle Ages, it must no longer be the 
battlefield of ambitious foreigners, but it must rather 
be the Italy of the Italians." 

But in the midst of the general jubilation which so 
auspicious an event naturally evoked there was one 
discordant note. In one of the clauses of the royal 
speech from which I have already quoted, these words 
occur: "In gratitude to France ; for the good of Italy ; 
to consolidate the union between two nations that have 
a common origin, principles, and destinies, and finding 
it necessary to make some sacrifice, I have made that 
which has cost my heart dear. Subject to the vote of 



Garibaldi 283 

the people, the approbation of Parliament, and the 
consent of Switzerland, I have made a treaty for the 
reunion of Savoy and Nice to France. " It was indeed 
a painful sacrifice. Was it inevitable? On the whole 
I am inclined to think it was, and that for two reasons: 
(i) I am convinced that Cavour and still more Victor 
Emmanuel would never have made the bitter sacrifice 
except in deference to inexorable necessity; (2) it was 
admittedly the sole condition upon which the "vulpine 
knave," as Garibaldi was wont to call Napoleon III., 
would consent to the aggrandizement, as he conceived 
it, of a neighboring power. Perhaps too much has 
been made of this question. The provinces — or at 
least Savoy — were in all essentials French; they as- 
sented by plebiscite to the change of masters; Savoy 
could contribute little to the resources of the new 
kingdom, and its conduct on more than one occasion 
had almost justified Cavour's assertion that it was the 
Ireland of Italy. In the chambers, too, Cavour's 
majority was unbroken, the treaty being ratified by a 
majority of 229, more than four-fifths of the whole 
chamber. 

But there was one man in Italy to whom the cession 
came as an overpowering blow, the man who, by his 
brilliant achievement in South Italy, was just about 
to rivet upon himself the attention of the world — I 
mean Garibaldi. "You have made me," he cried, "a 
stranger in the land of my birth." 

Garibaldi, whose career up to this point I must now 
very briefly trace, was born at Nice, in 1807, being, 
therefore, two years the junior of Mazzini, and three 
years older than Cavour. He was destined by his 



284 The Makers of Modern Italy 

parents, humble but worthy folk, for the priesthood. 
But he preferred the sea, and for many years he led a 
roving and adventurous life. Like many of the ardent 
youths of Italy, he came early under the influence of 
Mazzini's teaching; joined the association of "Young 
Italy," and from that moment consecrated his life with 
a simple-heartedness worthy of a medieval crusader 
to the service of his country. He was engaged in the 
abortive expedition to Savoy in 1834, and was con- 
demned to death, but managed to escape to South 
America. For the next fourteen years he was an exile, 
engaged for the most part in fighting the battles of 
Montevideo with the famous "Italian Legion," which 
he organized and commanded. The experience which 
he thus acquired of rough, irregular, guerilla warfare 
was afterward invaluable. 

In 1847 the news reached him in jMontevideo of the 
great excitement which prevailed in Italy and the 
earnest expectation of a momentous crisis in the his- 
tory of his native land. It was the moment, you 
remember, of the supremacy of the neo-Guelphic party, 
when the hopes of Italy were for a brief space centered 
on the pope. Garibaldi and his colleague Anzani at 
once wrote to the new pontiff to tender their allegi- 
ance, and to offer him the assistance of their arms. 
"If then to-day our arms, which are not strangers to 
fighting, are acceptable to your holiness, we need not 
say how willingly we shall offer them in the service of 
one who has done so much for our country and our 
church. We shall count ourselves happy if we can but 
come to aid Pius IX. in his work of redemption. . . . 
We shall consider ourselves privileged if we are allowed 



Garibaldi 185 

to show our devotedness by offering our blood. " That 
was the temper, the spirit of Garibaldi from the dawn 
to the close of his career — a spirit of simple-minded, 
pure-hearted, self-sacrificing devotion to his country's 
cause. No answer reached him from the pope, but 
anxious at all risks (for he still lay under sentence of 
death) to be in the forefront of the fight, he sailed with 
a band of fifty followers for Rome. 

He landed at Nice, his native city, on the 24th of 
June in the memorable year 1848, having already 
learnt at Alicante the exciting events which had taken 
place, and burning to be in the midst of them. With- 
out delay he offered his services to King Charles 
Albert, but the offer was coldly received, and Gari- 
baldi, therefore, went on at once to Milan, where he 
was enthusiastically welcomed by the citizens. From 
all sides volunteers flocked to the standard of the now 
famous warrior, and in a very short time he found 
himself at the head of thirty thousand men. With 
this band, notwithstanding the signature of peace by 
which Charles Albert gave back Milan to the Aus- 
trians, Garibaldi continued a desultory but harass- 
ing campaign. 

The appearance of this extraordinary army is thus 
described by an eye-witness (quoted by Mr. Bent) : 
"Picture to yourself an incongruous assemblage of 
individuals of all descriptions, boys of twelve or four- 
teen, veteran soldiers attracted by the fame of the 
celebrated chieftain of Montevideo; some stimulated 
by ambition, others seeking for impunity and license 
in the confusion of war, yet so restrained by the inflex- 
ible severity of their leader that courage and daring 



286 The Makers of Modern Italy 

alone could find a vent, whilst more lawless passions 
were curbed beneath his will. The general and his 
staff all rode on American saddles, wore scarlet blouses 
with hats of every possible form without distinction of 
any kind or pretension to military ornament. . . . 
Garibaldi, if the encampment was far from the scene 
of danger, would stretch himself under his tent; if, on 
the contrary, the enemy were near at hand he remained 
constantly on horseback giving orders and visiting the 
outposts. Often, disguised as a peasant, he risked his 
own safety in daring reconnaissances; but most fre- 
quently, seated on some commanding elevation, he 
would pass whole hours examining the surrounding 
country with his telescope. When the general's trum- 
pet gave the signal to prepare for departure lassoes 
secured the horses which had been left to graze in the 
meadows. The order of march was always arranged 
on the preceding day, and the corps set out without 
so much as knowing where the evening would find 
them. Owing to this patriarchal simplicity, pushed 
sometimes too far. Garibaldi appeared more like the 
chief of a tribe of Indians than a general; but at the 
approach of danger, and in the heat of combat, his 
presence of mind was admirable; and then by the 
astonishing rapidity of his movements he made up in 
a great measure for his deficiency in those qualities 
which are generally supposed to be absolutely essential 
to a military commander." 

This guerilla warfare, though it failed to improve 
materially the political situation, succeeded in doing 
two things: it stimulated to an incredible degree the 
enthusiasm of the populations from which the volun- 



Garibaldi 287 

teers were drawn, and it concentrated that enthusiasm 
on the intrepid hero who commanded them. Before 
the opening of the campaign of 1849, Charles Albert 
offered (laribaldi a regular command; but just about 
that time news came from Rome which caused Gari- 
baldi — to whom as to Mazzini, and to Cavour, Rome 
represented the embodiment of patriotic aspiration — 
to fly with a band of fifteen hundred followers to her 
defence. He was immediately entrusted with the 
defence of the frontier, which was menaced by the 
king of Naples. 

Upon the strange contortion of events which 
brought republican France to the assault upon republi- 
can Rome I need not dwell; nor upon the heroism 
with which Rome was defended by Garibaldi and 
Mazzini. In May Garibaldi's legion covered itself 
with glory in the two defeats it inflicted on the Nea- 
politans at Palestrina and Velletri. But the heroic 
struggle was already drawing to a close. "The situ- 
ation," wrote Garibaldi, *'grew more difficult every 
day." Just before the French troops, in accordance 
with the terms of surrender, were about to enter Rome, 
Garibaldi himself, accompanied by his heroic wife and 
with a handful of followers, marched out of Rome, 
"resolved," as he says, "to take to the country and 
try our fate again rather than submit to the degra- 
dation of laying down our arms before the priest-ridden 
soldiers of Bonaparte." Dogged first by French and 
then by Austrian forces Garibaldi's little band crossed 
the Appenines, and then, after hairbreadth escapes, 
embarked at Cesenatico, meaning to make their way 
to Venice, which was still maintaining its unequal 



288 The Makers of Modern Italy 

struggle with the Austrian forces. In the Adriatic, 
however, they were confronted by an Austrian squad- 
ron which compelled them to put back and land near 
Ravenna. "I leave it to be imagined what was my 
position at that unhappy moment; my poor wife dying, 
the enemy pursuing us inshore with the confidence 
gained by an easy victory, and the prospect of la'nding 
on a coast where in all probability we should find more 
enemies." Many of the boats were taken, but Gari- 
baldi with his wife and a few followers managed to 
reach the shore. Still they were pursued ; many of 
his friends, including Ugo Bassi, were taken, and with- 
out a form of trial, shot. Garibaldi himself escaped, 
but not till he had seen his wife expire in his arms. 
For four years he was a wanderer, but in 1854 he 
settled down in the island of Caprera, where for years 
he spent his time laboring as hard as ever he had 
labored in his warrior days to turn the barren rock 
into a smiling garden. 

But the events of 1859 once more brought the chief 
out of his retirement. Summoned by Cavour to meet 
him at Turin, Garibaldi, wearing as usual his loose red 
blouse and slouching hat, attended one morning at the 
palace and demanded audience of the minister. He 
refused to give his name, and the servant, alarmed by 
his uncouth and fierce appearance, declined, as a well- 
trained servant should, to let him in. Overcome, 
however, by his persistence, the servant went so far 
as to consult his master, though warning him against 
the importunate stranger. "Let him come in," said 
the minister, "it is probably some poor devil who has 
a petition to make to me." Such was the first meet- 



Garibaldi 289 

ing between the great statesman and the great volun- 
teer. During the campaign Garibaldi added enor- 
mously to his reputation, and on its sudden, unforeseen 
conclusion he was hailed as a national deliverer from 
end to end of Italy. 

We are now in a position to deal with the most 
splendid episode in Garibaldi's whole career, an epi- 
sode, indeed, than which none more splendid is to be 
found in the annals of recorded history. I refer, of 
course, to the Sicilian expedition and the liberation of 
South Italy. 

I feel it hopeless to attempt to convey to you even 
the faintest impression of the hideous yet despicable 
tyranny under which the inhabitants of the Two Sicilies 
had groaned for nearly halt a century. To make clear 
to you the reasons for the peculiar detestation with 
which their present government was regarded by the 
inhabitants of Sicily I should have to go back and trace 
the stages by which they were deprived of constitu- 
tional liberties, which they were the first of European 
nations to achieve. Such a task is altogether beyond 
the scope of this lecture. I shall content myself 
therefore by quoting some of the impressions made by 
this government upon the mind of an eminently in- 
structed, but at the same time eminently sympathetic 
observer in the winter of 1850-51. 

After a visit to Naples in that year Mr. Gladstone 
addressed his famous letter to Lord Aberdeen. Three 
reasons induced him to take a step admittedly unusual. 
They are thus stated by himself: "First, that the 
present practices of the government of Naples, in refer- 
ence to real or supposed political offenders, are an 



290 The Makers of Modern Italy 

outrage upon religion, upon civilization, upon human- 
ity, and upon decency. Secondly, that these practices 
are certainly and even rapidly doing the work of re- 
publicanism in that country; a political creed which 
has little natural or habitual root in the character of 
the people. Thirdly, that, as a member of the Con- 
servative party in one of the great family of European 
nations, I am compelled to remember that that party 
stands in virtual and real though perhaps unconscious 
alliance with all the established governments of Europe 
as such; and that according to the measure of its in- 
fluence they suffer more or less of moral detriment 
from its reverses and derive strength and encourage- 
ment from its successes. This principle ... is of 
great practical importance in reference to the govern- 
ment of Naples, which from whatever cause appears to 
view its own social like its physical position as one 
under the shadovv^ of a volcano, and which is doing 
everything in its power from day to day to give reality 
to its own dangers and fresh intensity together with 
fresh cause to its fears. 

"It is not," he goes on to say, "it is not mere im- 
perfection, not corruption in low practices, not occas- 
ional severity, that I am about to describe; it is 
incessant, systematic, deliberate violation of the law 
by the power appointed to watch over and maintain it. 
It is such violation of human and written law as this, 
carried on for the purpose of violating every other law, 
written and eternal, temporal and divine; it is the 
wholesale persecution of virtue when united with intel- 
ligence, operating upon such a scale that entire classes 
may with truth be said to be its object; ... it is the 



Garibaldi igx 

awful profanation of public religion, by its notorious 
alliance in the governing powers with the violation of 
every moral law under the stimulants of fear and ven- 
geance; it is the perfect prostitution of the judicial 
office, which has made it, under veils only too thread- 
bare and transparent, the degraded recipient of the 
vilest and clumsiest forgeries, got up wilfully and 
deliberately by the immediate advisers of the crown 
for the purpose of destroying the peace, the freedom, 
aye, and even if not by capital sentences the life of 
men among the most virtuous, upright, intelligent, 
distinguished, and refined of the whole community; it 
is the savage and cowardly system of moral, as well as 
in a lower degree of physical, torture through which 
the sentences extracted from the debased courts of 
justice are carried into effect. The effect of all this 
is total inversion of all the moral and social ideas. 
Law, instead of being respected, is odious. Force and 
not affection is the foundation of government. There 
is no association but a violent antagonism between the 
idea of freedom and that of order. The governing 
power, which teaches of itself that it is the image of 
God upon earth, is clothed in the view of the over- 
whelming majority of the thinking public with all the 
vices for its attributes. I have seen and heard the 
too true expression used, 'This is the negation of God 
erected into a system of government.' 

It is impossible to follow in detail the minute evi- 
dence upon which the author bases this appalling but 
not, I think, greatly exaggerated indictment. You 
may read that evidence, together with an examination 
of the official reply put forth in the name of the Nea- 



2^2 The Makers of Modern Italy 

politan government, in the fourth volume of Glea7iings 
of Past Years. 

Such was the condition of affairs in the kingdom of 
the Sicilies when, in the spring of i860. Garibaldi 
heard that the standard of revolt had been raised in 
Palermo, in Messina, and Catania. He resolved to 
start at once for Sicily. What was Cavour to do? It 
was impossible for the government to sanction an 
expedition for the assistance of rebels in arms against 
a friendly power; it was equally impossible to stop 
Garibaldi and detain his followers. In the fever of 
excitement which the news had created it was more 
than the newly-won crown of Italy was worth. Cavour 
took the only course open to him. Garibaldi and his 
"thousand" were allowed to sail from Genoa, while to 
the diplomatic world all responsibility for their actions 
was strenuously disavowed. Nay, so consummate was 
the acting of Cavour that the Mazzinians have always 
continued to assert that he spared no pains to frustrate 
the objects of the expedition. 

Garibaldi waited for no leave. "I know," he wrote 
on his departure to the king, "that I embark on a 
perilous enterprise. If we achieve it, I shall be proud 
to add to your majesty's crown a new and perhaps 
more glorious jewel, always on the condition that your 
majesty will stand opposed to counsellors who would 
cede this province to the foreigner as has been done 
with the city of my birth." Garibaldi was followed 
by a Sardinian squadron. Its instructions were brief. 
"Try to navigate," wrote Cavour to the admiral, 
"between Garibaldi and the Neapolitan cruisers. I 
hope you understand me." Admiral Persano's reply 



Garibaldi 293 

was equally laconic. "I believe I understand you; if 
I am mistaken, you can send me to prison." 

When it was known that Garibaldi had actually 
sailed, the excitement in the diplomatic world was 
immense. England alone, whose sympathies were now 
thoroughly arou&ed for the oppressed Sicilians, openly 
rejoiced at the turn events had taken. Garibaldi 
luckily was beyond the reach of diplomatic interfer- 
ence. A "horde of pirates," "desperadoes," "ban- 
dits," "dregs of the human race," — such were the 
least opprobrious of the epithets bestowed on his 
devoted band. Cavour had to bear the brunt of the 
attack, but he was not dismayed. "Here things do 
not go badly, ' ' he wrote from Turin to Palermo. ' ' The 
diplomatists do not molest us too much. Russia made 
a fearful hubbub; Prussia, less." Meanwhile Gari- 
baldi's progress in the south was one series of 
triumphs. Sicily was conquered in a few days. 
Thence he crossed to Spartivento; drove Bomba into 
Gaeta; and on the 7th of September entered Naples. 
In a few days Garibaldi and his handful of followers 
had made themselves masters of a kingdom. It is an 
achievement which stands alone in modern history. 
No wonder that it took the world by storm: that Gari- 
baldi was regarded rather as the hero of a mythical 
romance than an ordinary mortal of flesh and blood. 
But though all that the intrepid leadership of the 
chief and the unwavering confidence of followers could 
do had already been achieved, yet the difficulties were 
by no means over. Naples and Sicily were without a 
government. Garibaldi, therefore, was proclaimed 
dictator. 



294 The Makers of Modern Italy 

]\[eanwhile Cavour, alarmed at the rapidity with 
which the Sicilian kingdoms had fallen before the 
assault of Garibaldi: alarmed, too, at the growing 
popularity of the chief; alarmed, above all, at the 
news that Mazzini was in Naples, Cavour, I say, pro- 
posed to his parliament the immediate annexation of 
the newly-conquered province to the Italian kingdom. 
"Italy," he wrote to Persano, "must be saved from 
foreigners, evil principles, and madmen." He feared 
the influence of Mazzini's fanatical republicanism on 
the ingenuous mind of Garibaldi ; he feared also that, 
flushed wath their triumph, they would march from 
Naples straight on Rome. That step, as he well 
knew, would involve the instant intervention of the 
emperor of the French. Such a disaster must be 
averted at all hazards, but how could it be done? The 
Italian parliament had approved of annexation, but 
would Garibaldi respect the vote? Garibaldi now de- 
manded a confirmation of his own dictatorship, and 
declared that he would not annex the provinces to the 
Italian kingdom till he could proclaim Victor Em- 
manuel king of Italy in Rome. Everything was now 
at stake — the lifework of Cavour, the lifework of Maz- 
zini, the lifework of Garibaldi himself. Cavour, in 
this supreme moment of his great career, was equal to 
the crisis. By a masterly stroke of policy the control 
of the movement was taken out of the rash hands of 
the knights-errant and confirmed in those of sober 
statesmanship. He decided to despatch a royal army 
to the Roman marches, and so to anticipate the 
dreaded move of Garibaldi. "If we do not arrive on 
the Volturno," he wrote to the Italian ambassadors 



Garibaldi 295 

abroad, "before Garibaldi arrives at La Cattolica, the 
monarchy is lost. Italy will remain a prey to revolu- 
tion. " Napoleon had given a modified assent to this 
step. "If Piedmont," he said, "thinks this absolutely 
necessary to save herself from an abyss of evil, be it 
so, but it must be done at her own risk and peril." 
Cavour accepted full responsibility, and early in Sep- 
tember the Sardinian army was marching south. At 
Castelfidardo they met and completely routed the mer- 
cenary forces — for most part Irish soldiers, commanded 
by French officers — employed by the pope, and directly 
afterward they occupied Ancona. 

At the moment when the royal troops were march- 
ing south, the Garibaldians were marching north. "If 
you are not on your way toward Rome or Venice before 
three weeks are over your initiative will be at an end. " 
That was Mazzini's warning to the general, and the 
advice was sound. Luckily for Cavour, luckily for 
Italy, aye, and luckily for Garibaldi, the king of Naples 
turned to bay at last and confronted him on the north- 
ern bank of the Volturno. On the ist of October the 
battle of the Volturno was fought: the Neapolitans 
were scattered; //teir king took refuge in Gaeta, and 
so Garibaldi was left face to face with /lis king — Victor 
Emmanuel. In the mind of the single-hearted hero 
the brief struggle was past. When he met the king it 
was to lay down the authority he had perforce assumed ; 
to offer to his master the "new and brilliant jewel" he 
had promised for his crown. The day before the 
king's entrance into Naples Garibaldi had issued a 
farewell proclamation to the people. "To-morrow 
Victor Emmanuel, the elect of the nation, will break 



2g6 The Makers of Modern Italy 

down the frontier which has divided us for so many- 
centuries from the rest of the country, and listening 
to the unanimous voice of this brave people" (refer- 
ring, of course, to the plebiscite which had just been 
taken), "will appear amongst us. Let us worthily 
receive him who is sent by Providence, and scatter in 
his path, as the pledge of our redemption and our 
affection, the flowers of concord, to him so grateful, 
to us so necessary. No more political colors, no more; 
parties, no more discords. Italy one, under the King 
Galantiioino^ who is the symbol of our regeneration and 
the prosperity of our country." On the yth of No- 
vember the king and Garibaldi entered Naples side by 
side. 

And then, having thus introduced the king to the 
new kingdom which his sword had won for him, the 
simple-hearted chief, refusing all decorations, all 
rewards, went quietly away to his island home in 
Caprera, knowing well that for himself, for all con- 
cerned, he was safest there. No wonder that the 
imagination of the world was touched, as it is rarely 
touched even by the grandest feats of arms, by this 
act of dignified and simple self-renunciation. 

" Not that three armies thou didst overthrow, 
Not that three cities ope'd their gates to thee 
I praise thee, chief ; not for this royalty, 
Decked with new crowns, that utterly lay low ; 
For nothing of all thou didst forsake, to go 
And tend thy vines amid the Etrurian sea ; 
Not even that thou didst ////i'— that history 
Retread two thousand selfish years to show 
Another Cincinnatus ! Rather for this — 
The having lived such a life that even this deed 



Garibaldi 297 

Of stress heroic natural seems, as is 

Calm night, when glorious day it doth succeed, 

And we, forwarned by surest auguries. 

The amazing act with no amazement read." 

On the 1 8th of February, 1861, a new parliament, 
for the first time representative of all parts of Italy 
except Venice and Rome, assembled at Turin. Its 
first business was to establish on a legal basis the new 
kingdom, and to proclaim the King Victor Emmanuel 
II., by the grace of God and by the will of the nation, 
king of Italy. Yet with all the triumphant enthusiasm 
with which the proclamation was hailed, there still 
mingled the thought of Venice and of Rome — two 
gaping wounds, still unhealed, in the side of Italy. 
We have already seen how powerfully the mere idea of 
Rome acted on the imagination of Mazzini; how it 
spurred on Garibaldi, despite all the intricacies of a 
tedious diplomacy, to win Rome or die; how it had 
led Cavour less excitedly but with no less determina- 
tion to declare that "without Rome for a capital Italy 
can never be firmly united." One must be Italian, 
one must feel Southern blood in one's veins, must have 
been educated in this glorious history under the 
painted wings of classic poetry, to comprehend all the 
influences that Rome exercises over the Italian mind. 
Those who wished to make Italy a monarchy, and 
afterward denied her the capital which is hers by 
nature, did but construct a headless body.^ 

There was no man, no party in Italy, which did not 
fully realize this truth. Cavour felt it full as strongly 
as Garibaldi or Mazzini. But there was divergence 

' Castelar. quoted by Miss Godkin. 



298 The Makers of Modern Italy 

between them as to means. Cavour was weighted by 
an official responsibility which the others never felt. 
He saw difficulties which they did not, and conse- 
quently he seemed to the more ardent spirits lacking 
in the enthusia^sm by which all were, in reality, equally 
inspired. To Garibaldi especially the attitude of 
Cavour was exasperating, and a most painful scene in 
the first Italian parliament was the unfortunate result. 
On the i8th of April Garibaldi, in a most intemperate 
speech, attacked the great minister with the utmost 
bitterness. He declared, as he concluded an impas- 
sioned harangue, that it would be for ever impossible 
for him to clasp the hand of the man who had sold his 
country to the foreigner, or to ally himself with a gov- 
ernment whose cold and mischievous hand was trying 
to foment fratricidal war. Cavour was deeply hurt, 
but replied with marvelous self-control. "I know," 
he said, ''that between me and the honorable General 
Garibaldi there exists a fact which divides us two like 
an abyss. I believed that I fulfilled a painful duty — 
the most painful I ever accomplished in my life — in 
counselling the king and proposing to parliament to 
approve the cession of Savoy and Nice to France. By 
the grief that I then experienced I can understand that 
which the honorable General Garibaldi must have felt, 
and if he cannot forgive me this act I will not bear 
him any grudge for it." At the urgent entreaty of 
the king himself the two men subsequently met, and a 
reconciliation was effected. Three months later the 
great statesman was no more. 

Nothing, however, could shake in the least degree 
Garibaldi's resolution to make an immediate assault 



Garibaldi 299 

• 
upon Rome. The ministries which followed the death 
of Cavour undoubtedly bungled ; and rightly or wrongly 
Garibaldi was led to suppose that the government 
would oppose his attack upon Rome in much the same 
sense that they had opposed his attack upon Sicily. 
Never had the ripe wisdom of Cavour been more indis- 
pensable. It was clearly impossible to allow a subject 
to defy the government and act independently in a 
matter so difficult and delicate as that of Rome. Gari- 
baldi persisted; he was met on the march to Rome by 
a royal army at Aspromonte, and his volunteers were 
scattered far and wide. Garibaldi himself was 
wounded, and carried a state prisoner to Varignano. 
The wounded chieftain was a terrible embarrassment 
to a government already somewhat discredited. Gari- 
baldi was, indeed, as Mr. Bent has said, "the idol of 
Italy, from the throne to the cottage; Italians wor- 
shiped him, but they did not know what to do with 
him." The enthusiasm aroused for him, reasoning 
and unreasoning alike, may be illustrated by an inci- 
dent related by the same author. His room at Varig- 
nano was besieged by ladies of every degree, anxious 
for the honor of ministering, in however small a meas- 
ure, to the illustrious invalid. It was mentioned in 
one of the English papers that Garibaldi had said that 
the sound of an English voice did him good. Immedi- 
ately there was a perfect exodus of English ladies 
anxious to satisfy his slightest whim. Among them 
was a worthy old woman from Reading, of quite hum- 
ble circumstances, who set out with her daughter, with 
more zeal than knowledge, for Varignano. Their jour- 
ney accomplished, they demanded permission to nurse 



300 The Makers of Modern Italy 

him, to apply the soothing voice for which he had 
asked. Of course the permission was refused; the 
women could not speak a word of the language ; they 
had spent all their money, and had to be sent home 
by the government. Not, however, it is satisfactory 
to know, before they had spent a few raptured moments 
in the chamber of the sufferer, and had obtained a 
lock of hair and an unquestionable autograph. 

After the general amnesty Garibaldi decided to 
visit England, to try and arouse among the English 
people a more- definite and fruitful enthusiasm on the 
Roman question. Seldom, if ever, has such a wel- 
come awaited a foreign visitor to England. I have 
been told by one who witnessed his landing at South- 
ampton that the poor general's garments were literally 
torn to ribbons by enthusiastic admirers. The whole 
English world, official and non-official, quite lost their 
heads as well as their hearts. But there was one per- 
son of some count in Europe who was by no means 
well pleased at the reception accorded to Garibaldi in 
this country. How much Napoleon's annoyance had 
to do with the sudden departure of our guest is one of 
those diplomatic mysteries which may never be cleared 
up. Lord Palmerston repudiated the notion of official 
interference. Anyhow, the whole of his provincial 
engagements were suddenly abandoned, and Garibaldi 
left for home. 

There was work in Italy ready to his hand. In 
1865 the capital had been transferred from Turin to 
Florence — a stepping-stone to Rome, suggested by 
the French government itself. In the following 
year, 1866, Victor Emmanuel concluded an alliance 



Garibaldi 301 

with Prussia, then on the eve of her duel with Austria. 
On the 20th of June Italy declared war on Austria. 
Both on land and sea Italy was badly beaten, but 
Austria was so utterly crushed by Prussia in the brief 
campaign which terminated at Sadowa that she no 
longer offered any serious obstacle to the abandon- 
ment of the Venetian provinces; and thus at last the 
foreigner was finally expelled from Italy, and Venice 
was united with the rest of Italy. 

Meanwhile the Roman question, if not entirely 
solved, was advancing rapidly toward solution. As 
early as 1864 Victor Emmanuel had come to an under- 
standing with Napoleon in the matter. "Of course," 
said the French minister, "in the end you will go to 
Rome. But it is important" (of course on account of 
the relations of the government and. the Catholic 
church at home) "that between our evacuation and 
your going there, such an interval of time and such a 
series of events should elapse as to prevent people 
establishing any connection between the two facts; 
France must not have any responsibility." In Sep- 
tember, 1864, accordingly, France concluded a con- 
vention by which she agreed to withdraw her troops 
from Rome, while Victor Emmanuel engaged to respect 
what remained of the temporal power. But the pro- 
gress made or perhaps rather permitted by diplomacy, 
was too slow for Garibaldi. He had once more fallen 
under the influence of the extreme republicans, and in 
1867 he declared that he would delay no longer in 
planting the republican banner on the Vatican. 
Between these hot-headed and fanatical republicans 
on the one side, the Italian ultramontanes on another. 



302 The Makers of Modern Italy 

and the French emperor on the third, the position of 
Victor Emmanuel was anything but enviable. 

In the autumn of 1867 Garibaldi was suddenly 
arrested by the government, but released on condition 
that he w^ould remain quietly at Caprera. But mean- 
while the volunteers under Menotti Garibaldi (the 
great chief's son) had advanced into the papal states. 
The old warrior was burning to be with them. On the 
14th of October he effected his escape from Caprera, 
and managed eventually to join his son in the Ro- 
magna. Together they advanced on Rome, and won, 
after tremendous fighting, a great victory at Monte 
Rotundo. Meanwhile an army of occupation sent by 
the government from Florence had crossed the Roman 
frontier, and a French force had landed on the coast. 
Garibaldi's position was already critical, but his reso- 
lution was unbroken. ' ' The government of Florence, 
he said, in a proclamation to the volunteers, "has 
invaded the Roman territory, already won by us 
with precious blood from the enemies of Italy; we 
ought to receive our brothers in arms with love, and 
aid them in driving out of Rome the mercenary sus- 
tainers of tyranny; but if base deeds, the continuation 
of the vile convention of September, in mean consort 
with Jesuitism, shall urge us to lay down our arms in 
obedience to the order of the 2d December, then will 
I let the world know that I alone, a Roman general, 
with full power, elected by the universal suffrage of 
the only legal government in Rome, that of the repub- 
lic, have the right to maintain myself in arms in this 
the territory subject to my jurisdiction ; and then, if 
any of these my volunteers, champions of liberty and 



Garibaldi 303 

Italian unity, wish to have Rome as the capital of 
Italy, fulfilling the vote of parliament and the nation, 
they must not put down their arms until Italy shall 
have acquired liberty of conscience and worship, built 
upon the ruin of Jesuitism, and until the soldiers of 
tyrants shall be banished from our land." 

The position taken up by Garibaldi is perfectly 
intelligible. Rome we must have, if possible, by legal 
process, in conjunction with the royal arms; but if 
they will stand aside, even if they will oppose, none 
the less Rome must be annexed to Italy. Unfortu- 
nately Garibaldi had left out of account the French 
force despatched by Napoleon III. to defend the tem- 
poral dominions of the pope, a force which even at 
this moment was advancing to the attack. The two 
armies met near the little village of Mentana, ill- 
matched in every respect. The volunteers, numerous 
indeed but ill-disciplined and badly armed, brought 
together, held together simply by the magic of a name, 
the French, admirably disciplined, armed with the 
fatal chassepots, fighting the battle of their ancient 
church. The Garibaldians were terribly defeated. 
Victor Emmanuel grieved bitterly, like a true, warm- 
hearted father for the fate of his misguided but gener- 
ous-hearted sons. *'Ah, those chassepots!" he would 
exclaim sometimes; **they have mortally wounded my 
heart as father and as king; I feel as if the balls had 
torn my flesh here. It is one of the greatest griefs 
I have ever known." Torn by anguish, he still main- 
tained an attitude of unshaken dignity alike toward 
the French and toward his own rebellious sons. To 
the emperor of the French he wrote an ardent appeal 



304 The Makers of Modern Italy 

begging him to break with the Clericals and put him- 
self at the head of the Liberal party in Europe, at the 
same time warning him that the old feeling of grati- 
tude toward the French in Italy had quite disappeared. 
"The late events have suffocated every remembrance 
of gratitude in the heart of Italy. It is no longer in 
the power of the government to maintain the alliance 
with France. The chassepot gun at Mentana has 
given it a mortal blow." At the same time the rebels 
were visited with condign punishment. Garibaldi him- 
self was arrested, but after a brief imprisonment at 
Varignano was permitted to retire once more to 
Caprera. A prisoner so big as Garibaldi is always an 
embarrassment to jailers. 

But the last act in the great drama, the slow devel- 
opment of which you have with so much patience 
watched, was near at hand. In 1870 the Franco- 
German War broke out. The contest, involving as it 
did the most momentous consequences, was as brief 
as it was decisive. The French, of course," could no 
longer maintain their position as champions of the 
temporal power. Once more, therefore, the king of 
Italy attempted, with all the earnestness and with all 
tenderness at his command, to induce the pope to 
come to terms and accept the position, at once digni- 
fied and independent, which the Italian government 
was anxious to secure to him. 

"Most Blessed Father — With the affection of a son, 
with the faith of a Catholic, with the soul of an Italian, 
I address myself now, as on former occasions, to the 
heart of your Holiness. 

"A flood of dangers threatens Europe. Profiting 



Garibaldi 305 

by the war which desolates the center of the Conti- 
nent, the cosmopolitan revolutionary party increases in 
boldness and audacity, and is planning, especially in 
that part of Italy ruled by your Holiness, the direst 
offenses against the monarchy and the papacy. I 
know that the greatness of your soul will not be less 
than the greatness of events; but I, being a Catholic 
king and Italian, and as such guardian, by the dispo- 
sition of Providence and the national will, of the des- 
tinies of all the Italians, I feel it my duty to take, in 
the face of Europe and Catholicity, the responsibility 
of maintaining order in the peninsula and the safety 
of the Holy See. . . . Permit me, your Holiness, 
again to say that the present moment is a solemn one 
for Italy and the Church. Let the popehood add effi- 
cacy to the spirit of inextinguishable benevolence in 
your soul toward this land, which is slIso your country, 
and the sentiments of conciliation which I have always 
studied to translate into acts, that satisfying the 
national aspirations, the head of Catholicity, sur- 
rounded by the devotion of the Italian people, should 
preserve on the banks of the Tiber a glorious seat, 
independent of every human sovereignty. Your Holi- 
ness, by liberating Rome from foreign troops, will take 
from her the constant danger of being the battle- 
ground of subversive parties. You will accomplish a 
marvelous work, restore peace to the church, and 
show Europe, aghast at the horrors of war, how one 
can win great battles and obtain immortal victories by 
an act of justice, by one sole word of affection." 

But the pope still unflinchingly adhered to the posi- 
tion he had taken up. "I cannot," he wrote (11 



3o6 The Makers of Modern Italy 

September, 1870,) admit the demands of your letter 
nor accept the principles contained therein. I address 
myself to God and place my cause in His hands, for it 
is entirely His. I pray Him to concede abundant grace 
to your Majesty, deliver you from every peril, and 
render you a participator in all the mercies of which 
you may have need." However one may sympathize 
with the natural ambition of the new-born Italian 
nation to have its capital in Rome; however clearly 
we may realize, and it were the supremest folly to 
ignore, the insuperable difficulties which the papal 
claims involved; however much we may concur in the 
justice of the national demand — it is at the same time 
impossible, and I hope not wholly inconsistent, not to 
feel a real admiration for the inflexible determination, 
for the unbroken consistency which maintained in all 
their integrity the claims of that sovereignty compared 
with which, as Macaulay says, the "proudest royal 
houses are but of yesterday" — that sovereignty which 
"was great and respected before the Saxon had set 
foot in Britain, before the Frank had passed the Rhine, 
when Grecian eloquence still flourished at Antioch, 
when idols were still worshipped in the temple of 
Mecca." 

But, however much of sympathy we may feel for 
the fallen pontiff, our reason compels us to approve 
the king. A feint of resistance was made, but on the 
20th of September the royal troops entered Rome, and 
the tricolor was mounted on the palace of the capitol. 
So soon as might be a plebiscite was taken. The num- 
bers are significant — for the king, 40,788; for the pope, 
46. But though the work was thus accomplished in 



Garibaldi 307 

the autumn of 1870, it was not until 2d of June, 187 1, 
that the king made his triumphal entry into the capital 
of Italy/ "The work," said the king in the first 
speech he addressed to the parliament in Rome, "the 
work to which we consecrated our lives is accom- 
plished. After long trials Italy is restored to herself 
and to Rome. Here where our people, scattered for 
so many centuries, find themselves for the first time 
reassembled in the majesty of their representatives, 
here where we recognize the home of our thoughts, 
everything speaks to us of grandeur, but at the same 
time everything reminds us of our duties. . . . We 
have arisen in the name of liberty, and in liberty and 
order we ought to seek the secret of strength and 
conciliation. . . . The future opens before us rich in 
happy promise; it is for us to respond to the favors of 
Providence by showing ourselves worthy to represent 
amongst the great nations of the earth the glorious 
part of Italy and of Rome." 

My purpose is fulfilled. The work of Italian unifi- 
cation is now complete. Look back for one instant 
on the road that we have come, on the steps by which 
the goal has been attained. See the Italy of the ante- 
Neapoleonic days, hopeless, inert, benumbed; without 
one generous impulse, without one hope, without one 
thought of the possibility of better things to come. 
See the Italy of 1815, molded by the whims of the 
Viennese diplomatists; molded on the effete and worn- 

* The king had already paid a private visit to Rome at the end of the 
previous year (1870). A terrible inundation of the Tiber had taken place, 
and the king at once set off for Rome to demonstrate his sympathy with the 
distress of his new subjects. His conduct at this time won him the respect 
and affection of many of those who had been the staunchest adherents of 
the Temporal Power. 



3o8 The Makers of Modern Italy 

out principles of the hardened, faithless eighteenth 
century; divided, dismembered, distraught; its peoples 
bandied to and fro; its provinces distributed; here an 
Austrian, there a Bourbon, but all equally degraded 
beneath the ignoble yoke of alien tyranny. Then 
look on Italy in the thirty years' agony before the 
year of revolution; her noblest sons in exile; her 
bravest patriots fretting out their souls in Austrian 
dungeons; her poets silenced and her art in chains. 
See the brief but splendid awakening of 1848; Italy 
free; Italy at one when "the war-cry rang from Alp 
to Etna"; when "her sons knew they were happy to 
have looked on her, and felt it beautiful to die for 
her." And then follow the era of diplomacy and 
statesmanship. Shall I essay the graceless task of 
appraising the comparative value of the work which, 
under the calm and even inspiration, under the tem- 
perate guiding of the king, the statesman, prophet, 
and crusader, achieved for her who had the happiness 
to call them sons? The task has been once for all 
accomplished by a great writer.^ "Cavour had th^ 
genius of statesmanship — a practical sense of what 
could be done, combined with rare dexterity in doing 
it, fine diplomatic and parliamentary tact, and noble 
courage in the hour of need. Without the enthusiasm 
amounting to the passion of a new religion which Maz- 
zini inspired, without Garibaldi's brilliant achieve- 
ments and the idolatry excited by this pure-hearted 
hero in the breasts of all who fought with him and felt 
his sacred fire, there is little doubt that Cavour would 
not have found the creation of united Italy possible. 

* Mr. John Addington Symonds. 



Garibaldi 309 

But if Cavour had not been there to win the confi- 
dence, support, and sympathy of Europe, if he had 
not been recognized as a man whose work was solid 
and whose sense was just in all emergencies, Mazzini's 
efforts would have run to waste in questionable insur- 
rections, and Garibaldi's feats of arms must have 
added but one chapter more to the history of unpro- 
ductive patriotism. While, therefore, we recognize 
the part played by each of these great men in the 
liberation of their country, and while we willingly 
ignore their differences and disputes, it is Cavour 
whom we must honor with the title of the maker of 
Italian unity." 

Italy is free; Italy is one. We have followed in 
these last days her progress toward unity and freedom; 
we have been watchers, as Mazzini finely says, "over 
a mystery of dawning life, over the cradle of a people. " 
In the presence of that mystery skepticism and unfaith 
as to the future are impossible ; we have looked back 
honestly, we may look forward calmly — calm in the 
assurance that theie is in store for Italy a future, not, 
be sure, without its trials, but at least not unworthy of 
the traditions of her far-distant past; not unworthy 
of the splendid achievements in times more recent of 
her several but divided states; not unworthy of the 
sons whose widely differing but convergent efforts 
have combined to make her one. 

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

I. What actions of the Italian states made the terms of the 
Peace of Villafranca impossible? 2. How did the different 
powers of Europe act under the circumstances? 3. Give the 



3IO The Makers of Modern Italy 

substance of Victor Emmanuel's message to the pope. 4. Con- 
trast the opening of parliament in i860 with that of the previous 
year. 5. Why did the cession of Savoy and Nice to France 
seem inevitable? 6. How differently was it regarded by par- 
liament, people, and Garibaldi? 7. Give an account of Gari- 
baldi's life up to 1848. 8. Describe his army. 9. What did 
Garibaldi accomplish by his guerilla warfare? 10. Describe 
his defeat before Rome and the immediate events which fol- 
lowed. II. What was the condition of things in the Two Sicilies 
at this lime? 12. How did Cavour behave toward Garibaldi's 
expedition to Sicily? 13. How did Garibaldi's success become 
dangerous to the union of Italy? 14. How did Cavour act in 
this crisis? 15. Describe the events which followed at Naples? 
16. What was the condition of Italy when parliament met in 
1861? 17. Describe the scene between Cavour and Garibaldi 
in the first Italian parliament. 18. Why was Cavour compelled 
to overthrow Garibaldi? 19. What change was made in the 
Italian capital in "1865? 20. What was the result of the Italian 
alliance with Prussia? 21. When did the French troops with- 
draw from Rome, and why? 22. Why was Garibaldi arrested 
in 1867? 23. Describe the contest over Rome and the defeat 
of the volunteers. 24. How did the Franco-Prussian War 
favor Victor Emmanuel's plans? 25. What appeal did he make 
to the pope, and with what result? 26. Describe the occupation 
of Rome by the king, 27. Compare the work of the four great 
makers of Modern Italy. 



APPENDIX I 

AUTHORITIES 

I. — General Works. 

Mr. Probyn's History of Italy (Cassells) contains a concise 
but readable account of the history of the Italian move- 
ment from 1815 to 1870. A still shorter sketch may be 
found in Mackenzie's Ninetee7ith Century, or in A Cen- 
tury of Continental History, by Mr. Rose. 

Mr. Fyffe's History of Modern Europe, vol. ii, gives a good 
account of the movement down to 1848. 

Gallenga's two works, History of Piedniont, 3 vols., and 
Italy Present and Future, 2 vols., may also be consulted, 
together with the same author's {sub 710711 Mariotti) Italy 
Past and Present, 2 vols., and Italy i7i 1848, i vol. 

The articles in the new edition of the Encyclopcedia Brit- 
an7iica on " Italy" (by J. A. Symonds) and on " Mazzini " 
and "Cavour" are admirably done, and may with great 
advantage be consulted. 

Those who desire fuller and further information will find it 
in the following works : 

Cesare Balbo: So77i77iario . 

Quinet : Revolutio7is dPtalie. 

Reuchlin : Geschichte Italiens. 

CoUetta : History of Naples. 

Romanin : History of Ve7iice. 

Horner : A Ce7itu7'y of Despotis77i i7i Naples and Sicily. 

Nolan : The War i7i Italy (1859). 

Rimini : The Truth Respecting Italy and Piedmont (1862). 

S. W. Fullom : Rome U7ider Pius IX. Victor E77i77ta7iuel, 
Ki7ig of Sardi7iia: results of his rule, by a7i Eye'wit7iess. 

Bersezio : / Co7itempor^a7iei Italia7ii. 

D'Azeglio : / Miei Ricordi. 

Orsini : Austria7i Priso7is. 

Silvio Pellico : Le Mie Prigio7ii. 

Corresponde7ice relati7ig to the affairs of Italy. Presented 
to Parliament, 1849. 

Corresponde7ice, etc. 1860. 
Mr. Swinburne's poems, "The Song of Italy" and "Super 

311 



312 Appendix 

Flumina Babylonis," and Mrs. Hamilton King's poem, " The 
Disciples," w-ritten at the request of Mazzini, should be read by 
all those who seek to realize the enthusiasm excited for the 
cause of Italian independence in England. 

2. — Special Works. 
(a) Victor Emmanuel :— 

Massari : La Vita ed il Regno di Vittorio Emanuele. 
Godkin: Life of Victor Emmanuei. 2 vols. (Macmillan. 
Dicey : Essay on Victor Emmanuel, i vol. 

ifi) Mazzini :— 

Life and Writings of foseph Mazzini. 6 vols. Smith, 
Elder and Co., 1864-70. 

This work, which is in part autobiographical, is essential to a 
thorough understanding of Mazzini's career. 

There is a good selection from his Essays published in the 
Camelot Classics Series (W. Scott), edited by W. Clarke; but 
two of the most important Essays, viz., Thouohts on Democracy 
and the Duties of Man, are not included in this edition. They 
are appended, however, to Madame E. A. Venturi's foseph 
Mazzini, a Sleynoir (H. S. King.) References may also be 
made to Mr. Mver's Modern Essays : to Mazzini, by Jules de 
Breval (Vizetelly, 1853) ; and to Un Roi et un Conspirateur, by 
Auguste Boullier (Libraire Plon, 1885.) 

{c) Cavour : — 

?*Iassari's Life of Cavoier is the most elaborate bio- 
graphy, but in default students may consult Mazade's 
Life of Count Cavour (Chapman and Hall, 1877); or 
Reminiscences of the Life and Character of Count 
Cavour, by William de la Rive, translated by 
Edward Romilly (Longmans, 1862); or Mr. Edward 
Dicey's Memoir of Cavour (Macmillan, 1S61); or 
Hay-ward's Essay on Cavour in his European States- 
men. 

{d) Garibaldi : — 

Autobiography of Garibaldi, edited by Werner, 3 vols., 
recently published, is by far the best account of Gari- 
baldi's career ; but reference may also be made to 
Mr. Theodore Bent's Garibaldi ; to Col. Chambers' 
Garibaldi and Italian Unity; or to Recollections of 
Garibaldi, by Elpis Melena (translated). 



INDEX 



Actium, battle of, 48. 

Adrian, 55. 

Adrian IV.(NiciioIasBreakspear),96. 

Agrippa, 51. 

Alexander the Great, 32. 

Alexander III., 98, 162. 

Alexander V., 186. 

Alexander VI., 199. 

Alexandria, 98, 100. 

Alfonso the Magnanimous, 188. 

Andrea, Doria, 205. 

Anzani, 284. 

Archbishop Christian, 99. 

Ariosto, 184. 

Arnold of Brescia, 96. 

Aurelius, Marcus, 56. 

Bassi, Ugo, 288. 

Belisarius, 65. 

Benedict IX., 141. 

Benevento, battle of, 132. 

Benvenuto, Cellini, 203. 

Beneventum, 26. 

Berenger, 78. 

Bernadone, Pietro, 106. 

Boccaccio, 184. 

Bocca degli Abbati, 129. 

Boiardo, 184. 

Boniface VIII., J40, seq. 

Borgia, Caesar, 199. 

Borgia, Rodrigo, Pope Alexander 

VI., 199. 
Boucicault, 185. 
Braccio, 187, 188. 
Brancaleone, d'Andolo, 126, seq. 
Bretigny, peace of, 176, 
Brunetto, Latini, 148. 
Brutus, Junius, 47. 

Caesar, Julius, 43, seq, 
Caesar, Octavianus, 47. 



Caligula, 54. 

Camillus, 23. 

Cannae, battle of, 31. 

Carbonari, 223, 225, 226, 227, 229. 

Carroccio, 91, 100, 129. 

Carthage, 27, 32, 

Catilina (see Sergius). 

Cato (see Porcius). 

Caudine Forks, 24. 

Cavpur, 214, Part II., Chap. II., 243, 

seq.; 283, 288, 292 seq.; 297, 308. 
Celestine V., 140. 
Cesara, massacre of, 177. 
Chalons, battle of, 64. 
Charlemagne, 66, 'j'j^ 78. 
Charles II., 139. 
Charles V., 203, 204, 205. 
Charles VIII., 200. 
Charles Albert of Piedmont, 227. 

234, 235, 236, 248, 285. 
Charles of Anjou, 131, seq.; 134, 135, 

136, 137, 139. 
Charles of Naples, 140, seq. 
Chioggia, battle of, 167, 180. 
Cinna, 42. 

Cicero, Marcus Tullius, 43. 
Clarendon, Lord, 264, 265. 
Claudius, 54. 
Clement III., 86. 
Clement IV., 134. 
Clement V., 142. 
Clement VII., 178, 203, 204. 
Columbus, Christopher, 166, 170. 
Comitia Centuriata, 13. 
Condottieri, 173, 176, 185, 193. 
Congress of Paris, 264. 
Congress of Vienna, 221, 
Conrad, 87, 
Conrad IV., 124, seq. 
Conradin, 125, 133, seq. 



313 



3H 



Index 



Constable de Bourbon. 203. 
Constance, peace of. 101, 103. 115, 
124. 

Constantine the Great, 59. 
Constantinople, 61. 
Coriolanus. 23. 
Cortenuova, battle of, 120. 
Crassus, 43, 44. 
Cremona, 29. 
Cresentius, 79, 80. 
Crete 165. 
Cyprus, 165. 

Daniel Manin. 235, 238. 

Dante, 147, seq.; 167, 168, 184. 

D'Azeglio, 247, 250, 253. 

Delia Scala, The, 173, 

Diocletian, 57. 

Doge Orseolo, 156. 

Dominicans or Black Friars, 117, 

119. 
Domitian, 55. 

Eccelino, 120, seq.; 129. 
Emmanuel Philibert, 205. 
Emperor Baldwin, 163. 
Emperor Rudolph, 135. 
Enrico Dandolo, 161, 163, 170. 
Estes, The, 173. 

Fabius Maximus Quintus, 30. 
Facino, Carre, 187. 
Farinata degli Uberti, 128, seq. 
Ferdinand I., 217. 221, seq. 
Ferdinand II. (King Bomba). 233, 

236, 245. 264, 293. 
Ferdinand III., 217. 
Ferdinand and Isabella, 200, 201. 
Florence, 118, 127, 128, 147, 174. 177, 

179, 1S2, 185, 188, 190. 194. 196 seq. 
Francesco Carmagnola, 188, seq. 
Francesco Foscari, 189. 
Francesco Sforza, 192, seq., 194. 
Francis I., 203, 204. 
Francis II. of Austria, 217. 
Frederick II., 105, 119, seq.; 121, 200. 
Frederick Barbarossa, 95, seq.; 100, 

joi, 103, seq.; 160, 162. 



Garibaldi, 214, 271, Part III., Chap. 

III., 278, seq. 
Garibaldi, Menotti 302. 
Gaultier de Brienne, 174. 
Genoa. 90, 94, 99, 121, 165, 166, seq.; 

170, 20S. 
Ghibellines. 76, 92, 95, 98, 99. 116. 117, 

118, 121, 124, 125, 127, 128, 129, 130, 

133. 134. 135. 139- 142, 147, 150, 151, 

167. 177, 179. 
Ghirlandajo. 202. 
Giacomo del Verme, 182. 
Gioberti, 247. 
Giotto, 184. 

Godfrey de Bouillon, 83. 
Gonzaga, 173. 
Gonzaga of Mantua. 105. 
Gonzalvo de Cordova, 201. 
Gracchus, Caius. 38 
Gracchus, Tiberius. 38. 
Gregory IX., 113, 119, seq. 
Gregory X., 134, 135. 
Gregory XL, 178. 
Gregory XII., 186. 
Gregory XVI., 227, 233. 
Guelphs, 76, 92, 95, 98, 100, 116. 117, 

118, 120, 121, 124, 126, 127, 128, 129, 

130, 133, 134, 135, 137, 139, 141, 142, 

147, 150, 151, 167, 179. 
Guido Malaspina, 152. 

Hannibal, 29. 

Haribert, Archbishop of Milan, 91. 

Hawkwood, Sir John, 176. 

Henry II., 205. 

Henry III., 79. 

Henry IV., 80, 81, 82, 83, 86, 87, 92. 

Henry V., 93, 94. 

Henry VI., 105. 

Henry VII. of Germany, 125, 142. 

Herculaneum, 5S. 

Hildebrand (Pope Gregory \'lI.),8o, 

81, 82, 83. 84, 86. 
Holy League, 201. 
Horace, 53. 

Innocent III., 117, seq.; 162. 
Innocent IV., 125. 



Index 



315 



Innocent VIII., 199. 
Inquisition, The, 115, 119, 166. 
Investitures, War of the, 81, 93. 
Isaac Comnenus, 163. 

Joanna II., 187, 188. 
John of Procida, 136, 
Josefa Barbaro, 170. 
Jugurtha, 40. 
Julius II., 199, 201, 202, 203. 

Kablai Khan, 169. 

King Bomba (see Ferdinand II.). 

Ladislaus, 186, 187. 

Lando, Michael, 179. 

League of Cambray, 201. 

League of Lombardy, 99, loi, 125, 

161, 173, 174- 
Leo III., ^']. 
Leo IX., 85. 
Leo X., 200. 

Leonardo da Vinci, 202. 
Lepidus, 47. 
Lepi, 53. 

Louis XII., 200, 201. 
Luca Pitti, 194, 195. 

Msecenas, 51. 

Magenta, battle of, 268. 

Manfred, 125, 128, 131, 132. 

Manuel I., 160 seq. 

Marco Polo, 168. 

Marie Louise, 217. 

Marino Faliero, 164, seq. 

Marius, Caius, 40, seq. 

Martel, Charles, 66. 

Martin IV., 135, 140. 

Matilda of Tuscany, 82, 84. 

Maximilian of Germany, 200. 

Mazzini, Giuseppe, Part III., Chap. 

I., 211, seq.; 244, seq.; 250, 287. 
Medici, The, 179, 196, 200, 204; de' 

Medici, Cosimo, 190, seq.; 194; 

Giovanni, 190; Guiliano, 195, 196: 

Lorenzo, 190, 191, 195, seq.; 199; 

Piero, 194, 200; Silvestro, 179, 190. 
Meloria, battle of, 167. 
Mentana, battle of, 303. 



Metternich, 217, 220, seq.; 227, 233, 335. 
Michael Angelo Buonarotti, 202, seq, 
Milan, 91, 92, 95, 97, 100, 126, J30, 182, 

Mithridates, 42, 43. 
Monte Aperto, battle of. 128, 129. 
Monte Rotundo, battle of, 302. 
Montferrat, 205; Marquis of, 173. 
Mylae, battle of, 28. 

Napoleon, 215; seq. 

Napoleon III., 238, 26=;, 266, 267, 268, 

271, 279. 
Neo-Guelphs, 233, 247, 284. 
Neri Capponi, 194. 
Nero, 54. 
Nerva, 55. 

Nicaea, council at, 61. 
Nicholas III., 135. 
Nicholas IV., 139. 
Nicholas V., 193. 
Nicolo Piccinino, 192. 
Normans, 76, 85, 86, 160. 
Novara, battle of, 236, 243, 270. 

Otho the Great, 78, 79. 
Oudinot, 238. 
Ovid, 53. 

Pascal I., 87. 

Pascal II., 94. 

Pavia.92. 

Persano, Admiral, 292. 

Perugia, 185, 186. 

Petrarch, 168, 184. 

Pharsalus, battle of, 4S. 

Philip II., 205. 

Philip le Bel, 141. 

Philippi, battle of, 48. 

Piedmont, 205, 222, 243, 248. 

Pio Nono, 233, 247. 

Pisa, 90, 92, 94, 99, 118, 159,167, 185, 

186. 
Pius VII. ,217. 
Placentia, 29. 
Plebeians, 15, 19, 20. 
Porcius, Cato, Marcus, 32. 
Pompeii, 55. 
Pompey, 42, seq. 



3i6 



Index 



Praetorian Guard, 60. 
Propertius, 53. 
Pulci, 184. 

Punic Wars, 27, seq. 
Phyrrhus, 26. 

Radetzky, 236, 249. 

Regulus, 28. 

Richard Coeur de Lion, 166. 

Rienzi, 143, seq. 

Rinaldo degli Albizzi, 191. 

Robert Guiscard, 84, 86, 92, 157. 

Rodolph, Duke of Swabia, 83. 

Rome, II, 12, seq.; 13, seq.; 15, 18, 

25, 96, 9^. 99. no, 118, 126, 193, 199, 

203, 237, 238, 306. 
Rossi, Count, 237. 

St. Francis of Assisi, 106, seq. 

St. George, 166. 

St. Mark, 158; Church of, 157. 

Saladin, 103. 

Sallust, 52. 

San Martino, battle of, 268. 

Saracens, 76, 120, 125, 159, 160, 

Savonarola, 197, seq.; 200. 

Scipio, 31. 

Scipio iEmilianus, 32. 

Sergius, Lucius, Catilina, 43. 

Sertorius, 43. 

Severus, Septimus, 57. 

Sforza, Attendole, 187,188, 

Sforza, Ludovico, 201. 

Siccardi, Count, 251. 

Sicilian Vespers, 137. 

Siena, 128, 185, 186. 

Sixtus IV., 196. 

Solferino, battle of, 268. 

Stefano Colonna, 143, 144, 145. 

Sulla, Lucius Cornelius, 40. 



Tancred de Hauteville, 85. 
Tancred the Crusader, 93. 
Tarentum, 26. 
Tasso, 184. 
Theodoric, 65. 
Theodosius, 61. 
Tiberius Caesar, 53. 
Tibullus, 53. 
Titus, 54. 

Tours, battle of, 66. 
Trajan, 55. 

Trasimenus, lake, battle of, 30. 
Two Sicilies, 75, 93, 103, 105, 122, 128, 
134, 135. 

Ugolino della Gheradesca, 167, 
Urban IL, 87. 
Urban IV., 131. 
Urban VI., 178. 

Veil, 23. 

Venice, 65, 85, 90, 94, 121, 155, seq.; 
180, 188,201. 

Vercellae, battle of, 41. 

Vergil, 52. 

Vespasianus, Flavius, 54. 

Victor III., 98. 

Victor Emmanuel, 84, 214, 223, 236, 
243, 248, seq.; 269, seq.; 273, 279, 
seq.; 295,297,300, seq.; 303, seq. 

Villafranca, peace of, 278. 

Visconti, The, 173, 177, 178, 181; Bar- 
nabo, 177, 181; Filippo Maria, 187, 
188, 192; Galeazzo, 178, 184; Gian 
Galeazzo, 181, 182, 185; Otho, 135. 

Volturno, battle of the, 295. 

Zama, battle of, 31. 
Zara, siege of, 164. 
Zeno, 180. 



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